Jennifer Lopez, a/k/a J. Lo, whose larger-than-life presence propelled her from television to film roles, is the highest-paid Latina actress with $1 million she is asking per film. Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1970. The daughter of a computer specialist and kindergarten teacher, Lopez always knew she wanted to be a performer.

She started her professional career by appearing in the chorus of dancer, singer and choreographer Hinton Battle’s Synchrocinicity musical in Japan. She had also appeared in Golden Musicals of Broadway on a European tour, along with regional productions of Oklahoma and Jesus Christ Superstar. Jennifer Lopez got her shot at acting in Connie Kaiserman’s My Little Girl where she performed a little part as Myra. She was selected as one of choreographer Rosie Perez’s “Fly Girls”, after she won a national competition of about two thousand contestants.

Lopez, whose hip-hop dance numbers commanded a loyal audience in Fox’s In Living Color, parlayed her new visibility into roles on various TV series and movies. In Living Color was the first step for Lopez. Lopez was still living in New York and had to move to LA But, Lopez followed the show’s producer Keenan Ivory Wayans’ “You’ll have more money and more experience” advice, to stick on with the show.

While she was shaking her booty during the commercial intervals on In Living Color, one of her coworkers whose husband was writing and producing South Central for Fox, suggested her for a part. Lopez was seen as a recurring character here, where she portrayed Lucy, who worked in the co-op market. The show which was practically over before it started, pave the actress’s way into a two more short lived series. “Melinda Lopez” character which Lopez portrayed in CBS’s Second Chances costarring Connie Selleca and Megan Fallows was so popular that it was continued on Aaron Spelling's series, Malibu Road.

Jennifer Lopez refused the development deal which was offered by CBS, because she wanted a film career. Lopez effectively brought her television career to end with the heroic nurse Rosie in Nurses on the Line : The Crash of Flight 7 on 1993. The siren call of big screen couldn’t be ignored for her. Lopez was appeared in Gregory Nava’s critically acclaimed Mi Famillia, on 1995 which Nava focusses on the lives of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles from the 1930s to the present.

Lopez introduced her talent to top filmmakers with this movie. Following this movie, she jumped on Joseph Ruben’s Money Train. Although senator Bob Dole urged Americans to boycott the film, and the costars Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes were trashed by critics, Lopez left the train with victory where she got on as “Grace Santiago”. Later on, Lopez costarred as Robin Williams’ latina teacher in Francis Ford Coppola’s Jack, after beating up actresses like Ashley Judd and Lauren Holly.

Despite having previously worked in MI Famillia Gregory Nava asked Lopez to audition as a part of nationwide search in Selena, the life of slain Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla Perez. No stranger to the pressures of auditioning, the former dancer came in, nailed her mark and won the role. Jennifer Lopez thrust into spotlight with her performance in this movie, and increased her Hollywood stock considerably. The film was succeeded, despite some grumbling in the Mexican-American community that Lopez was of Puerto Rican decent. The similarities between the actress and singer who was poised for breakout stardom at the time of her death were unmistakable.

5’ 5’’ Lopez, who has had a yen for pizzazz from childhood has made a terrific start as star-crossed Selana with donning plenty of sequins and spandex, and a healthy application of Chanel Brick lipstick, and proved that her rise to stardom didn’t happen overnight. While Selena costar Edward James Olmos was saying “She has a tremendous amount of glamor, which I’vent seen in an actress for years”, the director Nava put it more succinctly: “She’s just a complete wow!” Lopez drew some lessons from Selena’s life: “I used her an example when I was making this movie.

She was very good with her fans. She was always very gracious, and always took time to talk to them. She realized that her fans were the most important thing.” Selena marked a new beginning for Lopez in more than just career terms. In the wrap party of the movie in San Antonio, Lopez’s boyfriend Ojani Noa took the microphone and proposed her on the dance floor. The couple married in early 1997. They later filed for divorce.

Lopez found out for sure that she had achieved stardom, when false rumors of her divorce were printed in mainstream newspapers after only two months of marriage. But they divorced after a year in fact. Jennifer Lopez ranked 16th on the People Magazine’s 1997’s Fifty Most Beautiful People list. Lopez ended Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar's spring box office sovereignty with her movie Anaconda which she summarizes as “mayhem, madness and snakes”.

The noir film Blood & Wine was well-received where she starred opposite Jack Nicholson as his Cuban mistress. She revisited the same genre in the fall where she appeared opposite Sean Penn in Oliver Stone’s U-Turn. Lopez beat out a bevy of A-list actresses, to land a role in Out Of Sight, in which she stars alongside George Clooney as a US Marshall who was taken hostage by the prison runaways.

The only drawback to celebrity? She can no longer go to spas for a restorative massage. “I can’t be naked in public. I would read in the tabloid about how I have a mole on my back.” Lopez says. She solved the style problem, by hitting LA. boutiques, with her model ex-husband Noa in tow. We’ll see what will she do in the future.

Jennifer Lopez Pictures