Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano Biography

Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the sitcom Who's the Boss? and on the supernatural series Charmed. Alyssa Milano was born in Brooklyn, New York to parents Tom (a music editor) and Lin Milano (a fashion designer). She has a younger brother, Cory (born 1982), who is also an actor.

She and Cory grew up on Staten Island. She began her career at the age of eight when she won a part in an open audition for a national tour of Annie. She appeared in television commercials and off-Broadway productions.

At the age of 11, she earned her first major role in the television program Who's the Boss?, alongside Tony Danza, Judith Light, Danny Pintauro and Katherine Helmond. She starred as Samantha Micelli, the daughter of Danza's character, Tony Micelli. When Alyssa won the role, her family relocated from Staten Island to Hollywood. Cashing in on her celebrity, Alyssa produced a teen workout video in 1988 called Teen Steam. Alyssa also appeared in the Josie music video by blink-182.

At the beginning of her career, Milano was known mainly for her role as Samantha Micelli on Who's the Boss? (1984-1992). She tried to shed her "nice girl" image by appearing in several films targeted at adults, such as Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1992), Embrace of the Vampire (1994), Confessions of Sorority Girls (1994), Deadly Sins (1995), and Poison Ivy II: Lily (1995), where she starred opposite Johnathon Schaech and Xander Berkley. She gained more mainstream success in TV as Jennifer Mancini on Melrose Place (1997-1998), Meg Winston in Spin City and most notably as Phoebe Halliwell on Charmed (1998-2006). Both Milano and Holly Marie Combs became producers for Charmed during the show's fifth season. Milano played the role of Eva Savealot in MCI's 1-800-COLLECT commercials.

On stage, she starred in Tender Offer, a one-act play written by Wendy Wasserstein, All Night Long, and the first American musical adaptation of Jane Eyre. She returned to her theater roots in 1991, when she starred in and produced a Los Angeles production of Butterflies Are Free.

While many TV series kids tend to be forgotten, their show biz careers over when they reach adulthood, Alyssa Milano was determined to make the leap. Known for her eight years as Samantha Micelli, tomboy-then-young-beauty daughter of Tony Danza on "Who's the Boss?" (ABC, 1984-92), she had been acting since she was seven and went on tour as one of the orphans in the musical "Annie." After additional stage roles and one small feature part (Marisa Silver's "Old Enough," 1984) Milano won the part on the sitcom. She worked in TV-movies during her hiatus (the syndicated "The Canterville Ghost," 1986; NBC's "Crash Course" and "Dance Till Dawn," both 1988), and won notice for her turn as Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in the feature "Commando" (1985). Milano also released an exercise video for teens and three music albums in Japan.

After the retirement of "Who's the Boss?," however, Milano could barely get an interview for an acting job. Short, but a pistol of energy and with a penchant for changing her hairstyle frequently, she played leads in forgettable efforts such as "Where the Day Takes You" and "Little Sister" (both 1992) and "Double Dragon" (1993), in which she was a teen vigilante leader with a severe platinum haircut. Then, in 1993, she was chosen to play Amy Fisher, the sexpot teen in the CBS TV-movie "Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story." Milano's was the naughtiest, meanest Amy in that year's triple-header Fisher-fest. Playing a very visibly sexually-charged role on network TV shattered the Sam Micelli image. Milano followed by posing nude for a magazine spread, partly covered with mud.

From then on, the offers increased, although the quality of the scripts varied. She had roles in several TV-movies: the title role in "The Surrogate" (ABC, 1995), supported Ma Barker's gang in "Public Enemy No. 1" (HBO, 1996), was marooned up north in "To Brave Alaska" (ABC, 1996) and was menaced in "Deadly Sins" (HBO, 1996). In 1997, she took a leaf from Heather Locklear's book and joined the cast of the popular primetime soap "Melrose Place" (Fox), as Jennifer, the scheming sister of Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro).

Milano appeared in three 1995 direct-to-video releases, "Embrace of the Vampire," "Glory Daze" and "Poison Ivy II: Lily". She finally earned decent notices for her turn as yet another sexy teen, the best friend of Reese Witherspoon, in the well-received thriller "Fear" (1996). She landed the title role in Robert Downey Sr.'s "Hugo Pool" (1997), an uneven comedy about a pool cleaner who embarks on a road trip that leads to a series of encounters with a film director (Robert Downey Jr), a local politician who moonlights as a gangster (Richard Lewis) and a young man suffering with Lou Gehrig's disease (Patrick Dempsey).

Milano's adult success was firmly cementred when she signed on to another Aaron Spelling venture, the WB series "Charmed" (1998- ), playing Phoebe Halliwell, one of a trio of twentysomething sisters that discover their family tradition of witchcraft. While relationships were harmonious on-screen, things were not so convivial behind the scenes and original star and notorious Hollywood bad girl Shannen Doherty soon departed the series after reports of clashes with Milano and the production team. Often toiling in low-level indie features, Milano's next big on-screen appearance was as a sexy hitchhiker in the David Spade comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" (2003).

Milano also had a major impact on the way celebrities protect their images on the emerging Internet medium. After her mother Lin found still captures of movie scenes in which Milano appeared nude--as well as many faked images--the actress and her family became vocal crusaders aginst celebrity copyright enfringement, using the proceeds from her legal victories to launch a family-friendly web entertainment seach engine, safesearching.com.

List of summary

Family
* Brother: Cory Milano. born c. 1982
* Father: Thomas M Milano. born c. 1947; married Milano's mother c. 1968
* Mother: Lin Milano. born c. 1948; married Milano's father c. 1968

Significant Others
* Companion: Barry Zito. pitcher for the Oakland A's; dating since August 2004
* Companion: Carl Pavano. pitcher for the florida marlins; rumored to have dating in November 2003; no longer together
* Companion: Eric Dane. rumored to be dating summer 2003; no longer together
* Companion: Justin Timberlake. rumored to be dating in September 2002; no longer together as of January 2003
* Companion: Brian Krause. acted together on "Charmed" (The WB); began dating in January 2001; no longer together
* Companion: Justin Timberlake. rumored to be dating in September 2002; no longer together as of January 2003
* Companion: Scott Wolf. met in June 1992 when they co-starred in the feature "Double Dragon;" became engaged to be married October 24, 1993; broke up c. 1994

Education
* Bel Air Prepatory School, Los Angeles, California

Milestones
* 1980 Toured USA in production of "Annie"
* 1982 Film debut, "Old Enough", directed by Marisa Silver
* 1984 Played Terry in "All Night Long", Second Stage Theatre, NYC
* 1985 Co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Comando"
* 1986 TV-movie debut, "The Canterville Ghost"
* 1988 Released "Teen Steam" exercise video; also released first album in Japan
* 1992 Starred in features "Where the Day Takes You" and "Little Sister"
* 1993 Portrayed Amy Fisher in CBS' "Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita"
* 1998 Co-starred in "Charmed" (The WB)
* 1998 Signed a development deal with Columbia TriStar Television for a series to premiere in the fall
* Featured as Samantha Micelli on long-running ABC sitcom "Who's the Boss?"
* Returned to series TV playing the sister of Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) on Fox's "Melrose Place"

Alyssa Milano Filmography List
# Kiss the Bride (2004)
# Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)
# Buying the Cow (2002)
# Kiss the Bride (2002)
# Diamond Hunters (2001)
# Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2000)
# Body Count (1998)
# Hugo Pool (1997)
# Fear (1996)
# Glory Daze (1996)
# Public Enemies (1996)
# To Brave Alaska (1996)
# Deadly Sins (1995)
# Embrace of the Vampire (1995)
# POISON IVY II: Lily (1995)
# Double Dragon (1994)
# At Home With the Webbers (1993)
# Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993)
# Confessions of Sorority Girls (1993)
# Conflict of Interest (1992)
# Little Sister (1992)
# Where the Day Takes You (1992)
# Speed Zone (1989)
# Dance 'Til Dawn (1988)
# Teen Steam (1988)
# The Canterville Ghost (1986)
# Commando (1985)
# Old Enough (1984)

Alyssa Milano Photos










Source: Yahoo! Movies, Wikipedia