Born in the Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents on July 24, 1970, Jennifer Lopez was urged to study the arts, taking lessons in dance, ballet, jazz, piano, and theater. Attending Holy Family School, Jennifer Lopez acted in community and school productions of musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Oklahoma. Her pop idol was Madonna, but Rita Moreno was her role model. Rather than attending college as her parents wished, Jennifer Lopez left school to take dancing jobs in music videos and later toured Europe with the Golden Musicals of Broadway troupe.
After a Japanese tour with the theater production Synchronicity, Jennifer Lopez was employed in 1991 as a Fly Girl, one of the dancers on Fox's In Living Color. She moved to Los Angeles and assumed the role of Lucy on Fox's South Central. The next year, Jennifer Lopez appeared in the CBS television series Second Chances and then reprised her role in another TV series, Malibu Road. Next came the television movie Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7.
Her first feature film role was as Maria in Gregory Nava's film My Family/Mi Familia (1995), starring Jimmy Smits. Jennifer Lopez received much attention for her next role as undercover cop Grace Santiago in Money Train (1995), with stars Woody Harrelson and WESLEY SNIPES. Next, Jennifer Lopez played a piano teacher opposite ROBIN WILLIAMS in Jack in 1996; the same year, she played the title role in Selena (released in 1997), a biopic about the crossover Mexican singing sensation Selena Quintanilla Perez who was killed by the demented ex-president of her fan club in March 1995. Selena was her breakthrough movie role, enabling her to show off her multifaceted talents.
Jennifer Lopez earned $1 million for her role in Selena and received several awards for her performance: Best Actress at the 1998 American Latino Media Arts Awards, Best Actress at the Lone Star Film and Television Awards, the MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance, and a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress.
In 1997 Jennifer Lopez also squeezed in Anaconda, playing documentary filmmaker Terri Flores, and in her next feature film had an affair with the JACK NICHOLSON character in Bob Rafelson's Blood and Wine (1997), a melodrama in which her character chose money over love. Jennifer Lopez also appeared in OLIVER STONE's U-Turn, playing incest victim Grace McKenna. Out of Sight with George Clooney (1998) amply demonstrated her flair for romantic comedy. Jennifer Lopez was a federal marshal out to nab Clooney, who was a thief on the lam in this outlandish but popular film. Her popularity resulted in lucrative endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Coca-Cola. In 1999 her debut album, On the 6, went platinum.
Also Jennifer Lopez played a psychiatrist who could not only empathize with her patients but also actually enter their minds in The Cell, released in 2000. The film, which grossed $61 million, has been described as a cross between The Matrix and The Silence of the Lambs. Jennifer Lopez appeared in two films in 2001, Angel Eyes (playing a policewoman; the film grossed $24 million) and The Wedding Planner, a romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey, that grossed $64 million. This movie and recording star has become a cultural icon known simply as J.Lo. Her latest film as of this writing was the updated Cinderella story Maid in Manhattan (2003).
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