Although of Italian blood, Alyssa Jayne Milano was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA on December 19th, 1972 (which makes her 30 years old this year). Seven years later, after seeing the Broadway play, "Annie", she looked up to her parents and said, "I can do that". She started acting at the young age of eight, in the role of "July" in the tour of the same Tony-winning Broadway musical.
Alyssa Milano spent over a year doing the musical on tour, before returning to New York
to appear off-Broadway in the first American musical adaptation of "Jane Eyre" at the Theater Opera Music Institute. She also appeared in Wendy Wasserstein's one-act play, "Tender Offer" at the New York Ensemble Theater, "All Night Long" at the Second Stage and "Warning Signals" at the Manhattan Theater Club. Thereafter, she landed a role as Samantha Micelli in "Who's The Boss?" in 1984 at age eleven. It brought her real fame, where she also won three Youth In Film awards for "Best Supporting Actress". When the show ended after running for eight years, Alyssa said, "[Who's The Boss?] was a great way to grow up, but I was sad to see it end. It's like graduating high school when you're sad and excited at the same time."
Alyssa acted with Denise Harris in "To Brave Alaska", an ABC-TV movie. In the film, they were abandoned in an arctic wilderness and only her determination and strength saved their lives. The film was actually made in Vancouver BC, and Alberta, Canada, and filming it was no walk in the park. Alyssa had to ride a snowmobile two miles each day to the set, and do underwater scenes in a giant water tank. Alyssa said, "We had our costumes padded with heat packs, but it got so cold that I would lay on the dog (Newman) to keep warm".
In other TV movies, Alyssa Milano acted in "The Surrogate", "Confessions Of A Sorority Girl", "The Canterville Ghost" with Sir John Giulgud, "Driving School", "Dance Till Dawn", "Candles In The Dark", and she also starred in a controversial story in the 1992 TV movie "Casualties of Love : The Long Island Lolita Story", playing the role of Amy Fisher. In this movie, she plays a 17 year old girl who was obsessed with an older married man, and went as far as attempting to kill the man's wife to get to him. In March 1998, Alyssa starred in the Disney Original Telefilm "Gold Rush" on "The Wonderful World of Disney". In the telefilm, Alyssa played a young adventurer who set out during the Alaskan Gold Rush to disocover her fortune, although time and time again cheated of her money by a gentleman she had a crush on.
She also had roles in a lot of movies. Her first film (at age 10) was with Danny Aiello in "Old Enough". Two years later, on her first hiatus from "Who's The Boss?", she played Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in the 1985 hit movie, "Commando". Alyssa once mentioned, "I was so scared, 'cause I was too little to separate real life from the movies." And about working with Schwarzenegger, she said, "Arnold helped me with my algebra homework". Who would have guessed Arnold is a Math whiz too? :}
Alyssa also starred in these following movies : "Where The Day Takes You", "Conflict of Interest", "Little Sister", and "Public Enemy". She also sported a short bleached blond haircut for "Double Dragon" (as Marian Delario, with Scott Wolf who acted as Billy Lee and Mark Dacascos who acted as Jimmy Lee. She was later engaged to Scott Wolf, but is now separated) and did "Hugo Pool" with Robert Downey Jr. and Sean Penn. In "Fear" (with Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg as David McCall, and Reese Witherspoon as Nicole Walker and also with Amy Brenneman, now starring in "Judging Amy", as Laura Walker), she played Margo Masse, a promiscuous 17 year old, whose appetite for excitement sends her into the world of her worst fears. Alyssa commented about her character, "I like to think of her as a girl who really didn't have a great upbringing and really just doesn't know any better. I think she's a good person at heart." Amongst other movies, she was in "Glory Daze", "Deadly Sins", "Poison Ivy 2 : Lily" (as Lily Leonetti, and a funny thing about this last name was that, they were sponsored by "Leonetti Equipments"). Alyssa was also in an episode of "The Outer Limits" and "Fantasy Island".
In the year 1997, Alyssa Milano trekked out to Park City, Utah, for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. It was there that her movie, "Hugo Pool" premiered. She gave interviews, and it was also there where she won the Spirit Award for women in film.
On April 14th, 1997, Alyssa joined the cast of Fox TV's "Melrose Place", playing the part of trouble-girl, Jennifer Mancini. It was her first regular series, after "Who's The Boss?" She shot the last six episodes of the 1997 season. And in the 1998 season, she was a regular in all 33 episodes of the show. Alyssa played the younger sister to Michael Mancini, who upon moving to Los Angeles from Boston, Jennifer started all kinds of trouble. She became Michael's partner in crime and a lover to one of the other characters.
