Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1970. Her parents came to New York from Ponce, Puerto Rico. She is the middle of three sisters. At the age of 7, young Jennifer went on her first tour - around New York City with her dance class.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. At this time she was taking a full time course load at Baruch, working in a law office and taking her dance classes. Eventually this would lead to a falling out with her mother, who didn't want Jennifer to pursue dance as a career. When her mother gave her the ever popular ''you live by my rules as long as you live under my roof'' speech Jennifer took that as her cue to break out on her own. Not having anywhere else to live, she took up residence in the building where she took her dance classes.

After an extensive nationwide search, Jennifer was chosen to play Selena Quintanilla Perez, in the official biopic of the life of the fallen Tejano star. 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.

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. After a bidding war among a number of record companies, Jennifer was signed to Sony Music's Work Group label. Her first CD, a pop album with a Latin flavor (although mostly in English) was released June 1, 1999. Working with the likes of Emilio Estefan, Rodney Jerkins and Sean ''Puffy'' Combs, the music world is buzzing that Jennifer is ''the next Gloria Estefan'' set to become the mainstream Latin crossover star Selena herself surely would have been, had she been given the chance. That early prediction seems accurate, as her first single, ''If You Had My Love'' shot to 1 on the Billboard chart, and has been certified platinum (one million sales).