Actress and pop singer Jennifer Lopez was born July 24, 1970, in the Bronx, New York. Growing up on Blackrock Avenue. Her father, David, was a computer technician, eventually working for Guardian Insurance. Mother Guadalupe (nee Rodriguez) was a kindergarten teacher working up in Westchester County. The couple both hailed from Ponce (though David's maternal great-parents were European), the second largest city in Puerto Rico, but had met in America, where they were both brought as children. She is the middle of three sisters.

Jennifer and her two sisters, Leslie (now a housewife and opera singer) and Lynda (a DJ, VJ and entertainment reporter), grew up in a small apartment which was "cold in the winter, hot in the summer". Jennifer began singing and dancing lessons from the age of 5, continuing through 8 years at the Catholic Holy Family high school in the Bronx, and another 4 at the all-girl Preston High School. Here she also proved herself to be an excellent athlete, pursuing softball, tennis, gymnastics and track events.

At 13, she gained her famous profile when a truck carrying cylinders of compressed gas hit her mother's car. One of the truck's headlights came through the windscreen and crashed into the back of the car, where young Jennifer was sitting. Luckily, she was bent down, tying her shoelace and received only a broken nose, rather than a face fit only for a starring role in Mask.

At the age of 16 Jennifer got a little break with a bit part in the film "My Little Girl" (starring Mary Stuart Masterson). But Jennifer's first love was still dance, and when she read about a scholarship to a dance school in Manhattan, she went down and grabbed the opportunity.

Fortunately, her luck changed rapidly. She won a place on a Japanese tour of choreographer Hinton Battle's Synchronicity. On her return, she received a call from Hollywood, saying she'd now been accepted for In Living Color, and could join the Flygirls, the dance group whose routines opened and closed the show, choreographed by Rosie Perez. Off she went to the west coast, but hated it, only settling when Cruz moved out to join her. When their relationship ended, in 1994, he would move back to the Bronx, opening a dry-cleaning business.

This time she made the cut and it was off to Hollywood. She didn't really enjoy her time on "In Living Color", as she longed for an acting career that would put her in the spotlight. Her first television job as an actress, on the Fox series "South Central" came her way because the producer of the show was married to one of the other fly girls, and he took notice of Jennifer during a special Fox aired about the Fly Girls. "South Central" only survived one season, but she quickly resurfaced on television screens appearing as "Melinda Lopez" first in the short lived "Second Chances" series, then "Hotel Malibu." In 1995 she jumped onto the big screen in her first major role, opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in "Money Train."

Lopez's first feature film was the critically acclaimed Mi Familia, or My Family, in 1995. She also appeared in Money Train (1995), opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, and in Jack (1996), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Robin Williams.

Lopez's first big break came in 1997, when she was chosen to play the title role in Selena, a biopic of the Tejano pop singer Selena Quintillana Perez, who was killed by a crazed fan in 1995.

Taking part in the production of "Selena" would impact Jennifer's life in many ways. On the personal side, Jennifer's fiancéé, Ojani Noa, proposed to her at the wrap party for Selena. The couple had met in Miami while Jennifer was filming "Blood And Wine" with Jack Nicholson. Ojani, a Cuban immigrant, was an aspiring model working as a waiter at Gloria Estefan's restaurant, Larios On The Beach. They were married in Miami on February 22, 1997, after knowing each other less than a year. Jennifer's sudden rise to fame with the release of "Selena" the following month would put an excessive strain on the marriage, and the couple filed for divorce just a little over a year after they were married.

Back on the professional level, her role as Karen Sisco in 1998's "Out Of Sight", opposite George Clooney, has brought her into the major leagues, making her the highest paying Latina actress in history. Playing Selena also brought back Jennifer's interests in being the "all around" entertainer, and she decided to record a demo of her singing, completely in Spanish.

Lopez's musical career also began to take off, as she released her debut Latin pop album, On the 6 in June 1999. The album, fueled by the success of her hit single, "If You Had My Love," went platinum within two weeks, making Lopez-along with Ricky Martin-one of the most influential examples of the growing Latin cultural influence in pop music.

Early in 2000, Lopez was nominated for Best Dance Performance for her second hit single "Waiting for Tonight," but lost the award to veteran diva Cher. In the summer of 2000, she starred in the science fiction-thriller The Cell, in which she plays a child psychologist helping to track a terrifying serial killer. The same year, she starred in Enough, a portrayal of spousal abuse.

The popularity of the multi-talented Lopez reached new heights in early 2001, when her album, J. Lo debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts, while her film, the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner, shot to the top spot at the box office in its first week of release. In December 2002, she performed another one-two punch with the release of the record This Is Me ... Then and a starring role in the comedy Maid in Manhattan, which was a box office hit, if not a critical one. In 2003, she co-starred with Ben Affleck in the box office bomb, Gigli. Other projects included Jersey Girl (also with Affleck) and An Unfinished Life, in which she played a single mom taken in by her father-in-law played by Robert Redford. She also starred opposite Richard Gere in Shall We Dance?, a remake of the top-grossing Japanese flick.

Shortly after her breakup from Combs was made public, Lopez began dating Cris Judd, a dancer who appeared in the video for her hit single "Love Don't Cost a Thing." After much media speculation, the couple announced their engagement in August 2001. They were married in late September. Nine months later, the couple separated.

That 2002 was a big one, too. She bought a $9 million property in Miami Beach, her neighbours being Robin and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. She opened Madre's restaurant in Pasadena, to be run by her first husband, Ojani Noa. And she found love once more, getting engaged to actor Ben Affleck, receiving a $3.5 million ring into the bargain. They announced their engagement in November. Following rumors of the relationship's demise, the couple broke up in early 2004. Lopez subsequently married singer Marc Anthony in June 2004 at a private ceremony at her Los Angeles mansion.

Beyond this, Jennifer had formed her own production company, Nuyorican, the name reflecting her upbringing - half New York, half Puerto Rico. She'd produce both her 2006 efforts, as well as the TV series South Beach. However, a film version of Carmen was delayed, perhaps indefinitely, as was a TV series based on Jennifer's early life in the Bronx.

From those humble roots, Jennifer Lopez had become the biggest multi-media star in the world, and showed no sign of stopping. Perhaps she would soon earn the one thing she seemingly lacked - the absolute respect of public and peers alike.