Jennifer Lopez, born on July 24, 1969, is a singer, actress, and dancer from the United States. She made her T.V. debut with “In Living Color” in 1991 as a Fly Girl dancer and remained a regular until 1993 when she decided to pursue a career in acting.
For her first leading role in the 1997 biopic “Selena,” she became the first Latina actress to earn more than $1 million for a film. She went on to star in “Anaconda” in 1997 and “Out of Sight” in 1998, becoming Hollywood’s highest-paid Latina actress. We’re here to help you celebrate her special day.
Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969, in Castle Hill, New York, and grew up in the Bronx. David López and Guadalupe Rodriguez, her parents, were born in Puerto Rico and moved to the United States as children. Her parents divorced in the 1990s. Growing up, Lopez ran track on a national level, participated in gymnastics, and was on the softball team.
Lopez was inspired to pursue a career as an entertainer at a young age. She learned flamenco, jazz, and ballet as a teenager at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. She enrolled as a full-time student at Manhattan’s Phil Black Dance Studio when she was 18 years old. Her parents were dissatisfied with her decision to drop out of college to pursue a dance career.
Lopez’s most well-known professional dance role was as a Fly Girl on the sketch comedy television show “In Living Color.” The Fly Girls were considered by Virgin Records as a girl group to rival the Spice Girls, but the deal fell through. She appeared in the direct-to-video drama “Lost in the Wild” in 1993. Lopez’s first professional acting job was a small recurring role on the television show “South Central” in 1994, and she starred in the action-comedy “Money Train” the following year.
Lopez appeared as a supporting actor alongside Robin Williams in the 1996 comedy “Jack.” Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn a million dollars. She starred opposite Ice Cube in the horror film “Anaconda.” She also starred opposite George Clooney in 1998’s “Out of Sight.”
Lopez’s debut album “On the 6” was influenced by Subway line 6, which connected her Bronx hometown to Manhattan. Her debut single, “If You Had My Love”, topped the Billboard Hot 100. Lopez became the first woman to have a number-one film and album simultaneously. Her 2001 album “J.Lo” was the best-selling release of her career.
It included the singles ‘Love Don’t Cost a Thing’ and ‘I’m Real,’ the latter of which reached number one in the U.S. Lopez released two albums in 2002. The first was a remix album featuring rappers Ja Rule, 50 Cent, Fat Joe, and P Diddy. “Maid in Manhattan” became the highest-grossing film of Lopez’s career. Lopez’s fifth studio album, “Como Ama Una Mujer,” was the singer’s first to be entirely recorded in Spanish.