She has been a dancer, an actress, and now a singer. Born in the Bronx in 1970, she always knew she wanted to be a performer, but it was her association with the Fox Network series In Living Color, as a "Fly Girl" dancer, that first gained her attention. Her dance moves, overwhelming stage presence, and soon-to-be-famous Latina curves were the stuff of talent agents' dreams. After landing acting parts on such short-lived TV series as Fox's South Central, CBS's Second Chances, and Aaron Spelling's Malibu Road, she shifted to movies, and her career took off when she eventually landed the title role in the feature film Selena, playing Selena Quintanilla Perez, the Tejano singer whose tragic murder made her an immediate icon.

After Lopez became a well-known actress, her young marriage to Ojani Noa came under close scrutiny by the press, and she and her husband were divorced after only a year together. Still, her career was booming, as the film Anaconda was a huge success for Lopez, who added sex appeal to the snake-driven movie vehicle. She also co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Blood & Wine, with Sean Penn in U-Turn, and with George Clooney in the critically acclaimed Out Of Sight.

Having established herself as a silver-screen presence to be reckoned with, Lopez switched her focus to music with the 1999 album On The 6, on which big-name, modern-day producers like her then-boyfriend, Sean "Puffy" Combs, lent a hand. The video for the single "If You Had My Love" received immediate and massive exposure via MTV, and the number of Lopez fans, who had dubbed the diva "J.Lo," seemed to multiply by the day.

Jennifer's appearance at the Grammys in her infamous down-to-there Versace dress, and at the Oscars in a braless, shockingly see-through Grecian gown and mink-fur false eyelashes, ensured that this fashionista would remain in the public eye between her subsequent albums--2001's J.Lo, 2002's remix collection J To Tha L-O!, and her most recent effort, This Is Me...Then. Her quickie wedding to dancer Cris Judd (the marriage, which lasted less than a year, was even shorter than her first marriage) and engagement to actor Ben Affleck soon after (before her divorce from Judd was even finalized) also ensured that she'd remain in the gossip columns.

Lopez has continued her movie career with varying degrees of success, in such films as The Wedding Planner (which was the number one film in the U.S. the same week that her album J.Lo held the top spot on the Billboard Top 200), Angel Eyes, Enough, The Cell, and her latest Pretty Woman-style romantic comedy, Maid In Manhattan. In her next film, Jersey Girl, she'll co-star with the man soon to be her third husband, Ben Affleck. On top of all this, she's also launched her own clothing line, perfume (Glow), and L.A. restaurant (Madre's). Suffice it to say, Lopez's continued success seems all but guaranteed.