Born July 24, 1969, in Castle Hill "Bronx", New York, Lopez began her career as a dancer, appearing in stage musicals and various music videos. In 1990, she won a national competition and earned a spot dancing on the popular Fox comedy television series, "In Living Color," as one of the "Fly Girls." A series of small acting jobs followed, including parts in two more series and a TV movie, Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7, in 1993. Lopez's first feature film was the critically acclaimed Mi Familia, or My Family, in 1995. She also appeared in Money Train (1995), opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, and in Jack (1996), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Robin Williams.
Before attending a formal education institute, 5-year-old Jen took singing and dancing lessons and spent her following eight years at an all-girls catholic high school named Holy Family, located in the Bronx. After that she studied at Preston High School for four years long, where she was popular as an amazing athlete actively participating in track, field and tennis and that her friends there called her "La Guitarra" concerning her guitar curved body.
The next year she won critical accolades as a very sexy U.S. marshal in Out of Sight. In 1999, with film offers rolling in, she released her first album, On the 6, which spawned a number of hit singles. She also became a paparazzo's dream when she started stepping out with rap mogul Sean Puffy Combs in a slew of eye-catching outfits. (Remember that green Donatella Versace with the plunging neckline?) The early 2000s were busy for the diva as she made movies, albums and lots of gossip, with a quickie marriage and divorce from dancer Cris Judd, a stormy high-profile romance with Ben Affleck---which spawned the punny nickname "Bennifer" and two subpar movies (Gigli and Jersey Girl).
