Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), popularly nicknamed J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, fashion designer, and television producer.
Lopez was born and grew up in the South Bronx, New York.
Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodriguez, a kindergarten teacher, and David Lopez, a computer specialist. She has two siblings, Lynda and Leslie.
Lopez spent her entire academic career in Catholic schools, finishing at the all-girls Preston High School, in the Bronx. She financed singing and dancing lessons for herself from the age of 19. After attending Baruch College for one semester, Lopez divided her time between working in a legal office, dance classes, and dance performances in Manhattan night clubs. After months of auditioning for dance roles, Lopez was selected as a dancer for various rap music videos, a 1990 episode of Yo! MTV Raps, and as a backup dancer for the New Kids on the Block and their performance of their song "Games" for the American Music Awards in 1991.
After being rejected twice, Lopez gained her first regular high-profile job as a "Fly Girl" dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1990. Soon after, Lopez became a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and made an appearance in her 1993 video "That's the Way Love Goes".
Lopez appeared on the short-lived television programs South Central, Second Chances, and Hotel Malibu, and the made-for-television film Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7. Lopez broke into the big screen in the 1995 drama My Family and then appeared opposite Wesley Snipes in the action film Money Train. Lopez has played roles in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack starring Robin Williams, and the 1997 thriller Blood and Wine with Jack Nicholson.
In April 2004, Lopez guest starred in the sixth season finale of Will & Grace, playing herself. Lopez made an appearance as a mentor on American Idol on April 10, 2007. She is the executive producer of a miniseries in Univision. The Miniseries will be named after her CD "Como Ama Una Mujer". It will premiere on October 30, 2007 at 10:00 on Univision. Christian Borrero will be acting in it along with Adriana Cruz.
Lopez has sold over 48 million albums worldwide. Lopez's debut album On the 6, a reference to the 6 subway line she used to take growing up in Castle Hill was released on June 1, 1999, and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. The album featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one lead single, "If You Had My Love",, as well as the top ten hit "Waiting for Tonight".
Lopez launched a clothing line in 2003. Named JLO by Jennifer Lopez, the line included different types of clothing for young women, including jeans, T-shirts, coats, belts, purses, and lingerie, a jewelry line, and an accessory line that includes hats, gloves, and scarves. Lopez's frequent use of animal fur in her clothing lines and personal wardrobe has brought the scorn of people concerned with animal rights. At the Los Angeles premiere of Monster-in-Law, more than one hundred protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) held a demonstration to highlight their concerns. Lopez told a radio DJ she was open to being educated on the topic.
On April 12, 2002, Lopez opened a Cuban restaurant in the South Lake district of Pasadena, California named Madre's. A media sensation was creating when during a press shoot for the fancy restaurant, a mysterious man appeared out of the sidelines and gave Lopez a floral arrangement from Ben Affleck, even as then-husband Cris Judd stood next to her. Lopez was widely criticized for what appeared to be infidelity on her part.
Lopez has ventured in the perfume industry, with her debut "Glow by J.Lo" which broke numerous records in sales.
Lopez owns a film and television production company called Nuyorican Productions which she co-founded with her manager Benny Medina. Dancer and ex-husband Cris Judd once had a stake in the company when he and Lopez were still married.
Lopez's first marriage was to Cuban-born Ojani Noa on February 22, 1997. They divorced in January 1998. Lopez later employed Noa as the manager of her Pasadena restaurant Madre's in April 2002, but he was fired in October 2002. In April 2006, Lopez sued to prevent her ex-husband, Noa, from publishing a book containing personal details about their short marriage, contending it violated their confidentiality agreement. In August 2007, a court-appointed arbitrator issued a permanent injunction forbidding Ojani Noa from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging" Jennifer Lopez. She was awarded $545,000 in compensatory damages, which included nearly $300,000 in legal fees and almost $48,000 in arbitration costs. Noa was also ordered to hand over all copies of materials related to the book to Lopez or her attorney.
December 27, 1999 Lopez next had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with hip hop performer Sean Combs. Stress over the trial and pursuit by the press multiplied their problems, and Lopez terminated her involvement with Combs one year later.
Her second marriage was to her former backup dancer, Cris Judd. She met Judd while filming the music video for her single "Love Don't Cost a Thing." The two were married on September 29, 2001, at a home in a Los Angeles suburb. Their marriage effectively ended in June 2002, when Lopez began publicly dating Ben Affleck. They were officially divorced in January, 2003.
Lopez's relationship with actor Ben Affleck was highly publicized, with the media dubbing them "Bennifer". Lopez announced her engagement to Affleck in November 2002, after Affleck gave her a six-carat pink diamond ring worth a reported $1.2 million. Lopez promised interviewers that Affleck was indeed "the one", and that they would soon have a family. The marriage, planned for September 14, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California, was called off just hours before the event. During the week before the scheduled nuptials, Affleck had been seen by press carousing at a strip club in Vancouver with friends. The media blitz intensified when it was Lopez's own sister who called in live radio to tell Lopez where her fiance had been the previous night. Lopez would only respond by saying it was a terrible way to begin the day, finding out about Affleck's behavior in that manner. Publicists announced a permanent split on January 20, 2004. Affleck has refused to speak of his relationship with Lopez, only citing intense media attention as the cause of the break-up.In 2004 Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck acted together in the film "Jersey girl".
Shortly after her break-up with Affleck, Lopez was seen out with singer Marc Anthony, a long-time friend she had worked with in music videos. In October 2003 he was separated, for the second time, from his first wife, the former Miss Universe, Dayanara Torres, with whom he has two children. Torres filed for divorce three months later. Lopez and Anthony married in a quiet home wedding on June 5, 2004, four days after his divorce from Torres was final. Lopez's guests had been invited to an "afternoon party" at Lopez's house and had not been made aware that they were actually going to her wedding. In February 2005, Lopez confirmed the marriage, and added that "everyone knows. It's not a secret".
It was reported that Lopez and Anthony were taking professional business meetings at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, California, in late 2006. It was also rumored that Lopez and Anthony became Scientologists during that period with the help of Angelo Pagan, the husband of "King of Queens" actress and Scientologist Leah Remini. Just prior to those reports, Lopez said to NBC, "I'm not a Scientologist, I was raised Catholic. But it's funny the way people come at it. To me it's so strange. These are some of the best people I've ever met in my life." She added, "My dad has been a Scientologist for 20 years. He's the best man that I know in my life and so, it's weird to me that people want to paint it in a negative way."
On the last night of their "En Concierto" tour November 7, 2007, before a crowd of fans, Lopez confirmed she was expecting her first child with husband Marc Anthony. The announcement ended months of speculation over the pregnancy. Her father later confirmed on February 5, 2008, she was expecting twins. Lopez gave birth on February 22, 2008 to fraternal twins, Emme Marbiel and Maximilian "Max" David by C-section. The twins were introduced in the March 2008 issue of People magazine.