A Bronx-born actress-singer-dancer of Puerto Rican descent, Jennifer Lopez quickly went from a rising starlet to leading lady, with her sultry, intelligent eyes, luxuriant wavy hair, and fluid body of legendary voluptuousness coming across well on the big screen. Lopez first won attention as a “fly girl”, one of the back-up dancers on the Fox variety series “In Living Color” and went on to act in several failed TV series before reaching the big time, leading in feature films and hitting the top of the Billboard charts. This daughter of a computer specialist and a kindergarten teacher always wanted to perform and began taking dance lessons at an early age. Lopez later danced in the European tour of “Golden Musicals of Broadway”, in the chorus behind Hinton Battle in the Japanese tour of “Synchronicity” and in numerous music videos and TV variety specials.
While she made her film debut in “My Little Girl” (1986), her real showbiz break did not come until she beat out 2,000 other aspirants, impressing choreographer Rosie Perez, and landing a spot in the chorus of “In Living Color”. Lopez stayed with the show from 1991-1993, when she elected to branch out into acting. TV roles came quickly, although the vehicles were not all that successful. She made her TV-movie debut as a nurse among crash victims in the dense Mexican jungle in “Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7″ (CBS, 1993). She went on to portray Melinda Lopez, a Latina maiden under the watchful eye of her father (Pepe Serna) in the short-lived CBS series “Second Chances” (1993-94), and repeated the role in “Hotel Malibu” (1994), an equally unsuccessful revamp of the former. She also appeared in “South Central” (Fox, 1994), as a co-worker of star Tina Lifford. In 1994, Lopez even co-hosted “Growing Up Roses” (CBS), a special recapping the best moments in Tournament of Roses Parade history.
