J. Lo

Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she remained a regular until she decided to pursue an acting career in 1993. For her first leading role in ''Selena'' (1997), she became the first Hispanic actress to earn over US$1 million for a film. She went on to star in ''Anaconda'' (1997) and ''Out of Sight'' (1998), and established herself as the highest-paid Hispanic actress in Hollywood.

Lopez ventured into the music industry with her debut studio album '' On the 6'' (1999), which helped propel the Latin pop movement in American music, and later starred in the psychological horror '' The Cell'' (2000). With the simultaneous release of her second studio album ''J.Lo'' and her romantic comedy ''The Wedding Planner'' in 2001, she became the first woman to have a number-one album and film in the same week. Her 2002 release, ''J to tha L–O! The Remixes'', became the first remix album in history to debut atop the US ''Billboard'' 200. Later that year, she released her third studio album, '' This Is Me... Then'' and starred in the film ''Maid in Manhattan''.

After starring in ''Gigli'' (2003), a critical and commercial failure, Lopez starred in the successful romantic comedies '' Shall We Dance?'' (2004) and ''Monster-in-Law'' (2005). Her fifth studio album, '' Como Ama una Mujer'' (2007), had the highest first week sales for a debut Spanish album in the United States. Following a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to prominence in 2011 with her appearance as a judge on ''American Idol'' and released her seventh studio album, ''Love?''. From 2016 to 2018, she starred in the police drama series ''Shades of Blue'' and performed a residency show, Jennifer Lopez: All I Have, at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas. She also produced and served as a judge on ''World of Dance'' (2017–2020). In 2019, she garnered critical acclaim for her performance as a stripper in the crime drama '' Hustlers''.

Lopez is considered a pop culture icon, and is often described as a triple threat entertainer. With a cumulative film gross of US$3.1 billion and estimated global sales of 80 million records, she is considered the most influential Hispanic entertainer in North America. In 2012, ''Forbes'' ranked her the world's most powerful celebrity, and the 38th most powerful woman in the world. ''Time'' listed her among their 100 most influential people in the world in 2018. Her most successful singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 include "If You Had My Love", " I'm Real", "Ain't It Funny", " All I Have" and "On the Floor". For her contributions to the recording industry, she has a landmark star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has received the ''Billboard'' Icon Award and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, among other honors. Her other ventures include beauty and clothing lines, fragrances, a production company and a charitable foundation.

Early life

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on 24 July 1969 in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, and raised in its Castle Hill neighborhood. Her parents, David López and Guadalupe Rodríguez, were born in Puerto Rico and moved to the U.S. mainland as children. After serving in the army, David worked as a computer technician at Guardian Insurance Company. Guadalupe was a homemaker for the first ten years of Lopez's life and later worked as a Tupperware salesperson and a kindergarten and gym teacher. They divorced in the 1990s after 33 years of marriage.

Lopez is a middle child; she has an older sister, Leslie, and a younger sister, Lynda. The three shared a bedroom. Lopez has described her upbringing as "strict". She was raised in a Roman Catholic family; she attended Mass every Sunday and received a Catholic education, attending Holy Family School and the all-girls Preston High School.Stated on ''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 In school, Lopez ran track on a national level, participated in gymnastics and was on the softball team. She danced in school musicals and played a lead role in a production of ''Godspell''.

There was "lots of music" in the typically Puerto Rican household, and Lopez and her sisters were encouraged to sing, dance and create their own plays for family events. ''West Side Story'' made a particular impression on the young Lopez and she wanted to be an entertainer from an early age. At the age of five, she began taking dance lessons at Ballet Hispánico on the Upper West Side. As a teenager, she learned flamenco, jazz and ballet at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club and taught dance to younger students, including Kerry Washington. After graduating from high school, she had a part-time secretarial job at a law firm and studied business at New York's Baruch College for one semester. Lopez made her acting debut at age 16 with a small role in the 1986 film ''My Little Girl''. At age 18, she enrolled as a full-time student at Manhattan's Phil Black Dance Studio, where she had already taken night classes in jazz and tap dance. Her parents were unhappy with her decision to leave college to pursue a dance career. Her mother asked her to move out of the family home and they stopped speaking for eight months. Lopez moved to Manhattan, sleeping in the dance studio's office for the first few months.

Career

1989-1996: Professional dancing and early acting roles

Lopez's first professional job came in 1989 when she spent five months touring Europe with the musical revue show ''Golden Musicals of Broadway''. She was the only member of the chorus not to have a solo and later characterized it as a pivotal moment where she realized the importance of a "tough skin" in the entertainment business. In 1990, she danced alongside MC Hammer in an episode of ''Yo! MTV Raps'' and traveled around Japan for four months as a chorus member in ''Synchronicity''. When she returned to the United States, she was hired as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block's performance of " Games" at the 1991 American Music Awards. She also traveled around America with regional productions of the musicals '' Jesus Christ Superstar'' and ''Oklahoma!'' During this period, Lopez also danced in music videos including Doug E. Fresh's "Summertime", Richard Rogers' "Can't Stop Loving You", EPMD's " Rampage" and Samantha Fox's "(Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On".

Lopez's most high-profile job as a professional dancer was as a Fly Girl jazz-funk dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', which starred comedians including Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey. At the New York audition, the show's choreographer, Rosie Perez, noticed that Lopez had "star quality" and "did not complain, not once" when asked to repeatedly perform the dance routine. Lopez moved to Los Angeles in late 1991 for the job; she filmed ''In Living Color'' during the day and attended acting classes taught by Aaron Speiser at night. The head of Virgin Records considered signing The Fly Girls as a girl group to rival the Spice Girls, but the deal fell apart. After appearing as a Fly Girl in seasons three and four of ''In Living Color'', Lopez left to work as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson, and appeared in the music video for " That's the Way Love Goes". She was scheduled to tour with Jackson on her Janet World Tour in late 1993 but opted to pursue an acting career instead.

Lopez's first professional acting job was a small recurring role on the television show '' South Central'' (1994). She was invited to audition for the pilot by a casting director who had seen her speak to camera during a behind-the-scenes ''In Living Color'' segment. Lopez then acquired an agent and was cast in the CBS show '' Second Chances'' and its spin-off ''Hotel Malibu''. She appeared in the direct-to-video drama film ''Lost in the Wild'' (1993). For her first major movie role, in Gregory Nava's 1995 drama '' Mi Familia'', Lopez received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lopez then starred in the action comedy ''Money Train'' (1995). Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' said she "mostly holds her own" with co-stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, while Stephen Holden of ''The New York Times'' praised her "scene-stealing charm". In 1996, Lopez had a supporting role opposite Robin Williams in the comedy ''Jack''. She next starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the neo-noir thriller ''Blood and Wine'' (1997). David Rooney of ''Variety'' felt Lopez delivered in "juggling" the "smoldering and soulful sides" of the character but Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'' said she was "used as a place marker rather than as a real girl."

1997-2002: Movie and pop stardom

With her casting as the singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in the biopic ''Selena'' (1997), Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn $1 million; afterward she received her first Golden Globe nomination. She was excited by the rare opportunity to "actually star" in a movie "in the title role" but expressed disappointment that other Latina actors were not being afforded the same opportunities. Despite having previously worked with the film's director on ''Mi Familia'', Lopez participated in an intense auditioning process and spent time with the late singer's family in Corpus Christi, Texas before filming began. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as "a star-making performance" and particularly enjoyed the onstage scenes: "She has the star presence to look convincing in front of 100,000 fans." Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' praised the "incandescent" performance. Over the years, many have considered her performance worthy of a nomination at the Academy Awards: "I felt she not only should have been nominated, but she should have won an Oscar for that part," director and writer Gregory Nava has said. Nava felt so strongly about Lopez's performance he approached the heads of Warner Bros., at the time, and asked for an Academy campaign. He remembers they said, "she deserves it, but the Academy will never nominate her. They'll never nominate a Latina." Later in 1997, Lopez starred opposite Ice Cube in the horror film ''Anaconda''. While Joe Leydon of ''Variety'' found ''Anaconda'' "silly", he said the film deserved "a little credit" for being "the first movie of its kind to have a Latina and an African-American" as its stars. In the crime film ''U Turn'' (1997), Lopez appeared topless in a sex scene that was added by director Oliver Stone during filming. Speaking in 2003, Lopez said it was not something "I would have chosen to do" and that she and Stone fought over it: "It's hard being the only woman on a set ... But it actually worked in the movie ... This woman, Grace, had become a piece of flesh almost. Her body wasn't her own."

Lopez starred opposite George Clooney in the crime caper ''Out of Sight'' (1998), Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. Cast as a deputy federal marshal who falls for a charming criminal, Lopez won rave reviews for her performance. Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' described it as her "best movie role thus far, and she brings it both seductiveness and grit; if it was hard to imagine a hard-working, pistol-packing bombshell on the page, it couldn't be easier here." Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' described Lopez as "an actress who can be convincingly tough and devastatingly erotic" and said the film solidified "her position as a woman you can confidently build a film around." Her costar George Clooney noted of her performance, in November 2020: "Every actress in town read for that part, and part of it was that she had to be sexy, but you also had to believe that she could shoot you and kill you. And Jennifer had all of that. You know, you believe every minute when she picked up a gun, she might pull the trigger and blow your head off, and she was really good. She was wonderful in the film, and it’s funny because she’s had an amazing career, and gone on to do so many things, and sort of be an all-around entertainer, but I think if you look back, that’s a performance. That really stands out for her." Also in 1998, Lopez provided the voice of Azteca in the animated film ''Antz''.

Lopez launched a music career in 1999 because, after ''Selena'', she had missed "the excitement of the stage" and was "really feeling erLatin roots". Lopez's new manager Benny Medina sought to position her as "a brand name that will cross over into all media." Lopez recorded a Spanish-language demo for circulation among prospective labels. Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music's Work Group, signed her but suggested that she sing in English instead. Her debut album '' On the 6'', named after the 6 Subway line which connected her childhood home in the Bronx to Manhattan, was filled with what Ed Morales of the ''Los Angeles Times'' described as "state-of-the-art dance pop ... even if Lopez's vocals are largely anonymous." The album was a success and Lopez's debut single, "If You Had My Love", topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, with another single, "Waiting for Tonight", reaching number eight. In 2000, Lopez and then-boyfriend Sean Combs attended the Grammy Awards, with Lopez wearing a plunging green Versace silk chiffon dress. The dress generated worldwide attention and became the most popular search query in Google's history, leading to the creation of Google Images. Lopez returned to the big screen in 2000, starring in the psychological thriller '' The Cell''. David Edelstein of ''Slate'' remarked that the "imperious" Lopez was "trying to look waifishly expectant" while Amy Taubin of ''The Village Voice'' noted that she appeared to be engaged "in some kind of pouting competition" "in lieu of acting."

Lopez became the first woman to have a number one film and album simultaneously when, in early 2001, the romantic comedy ''The Wedding Planner'', co-starring Matthew McConaughey, and her sophomore album ''J.Lo'' were released in the same week. In a review of ''The Wedding Planner'', Bob Graham of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' remarked that, while there was "no doubt of Lopez's screen poise or acting chops", she should choose comedic projects with "more bite." Jessica Winter of ''The Village Voice'' found her "bewilderingly miscast" as a "buttoned down, celibate" woman, writing that the movie "achieves the dubious but perversely impressive feat, for its 90-minute duration, of neutering Jennifer Lopez." The album ''J.Lo'' received mixed reviews. Jon Pareles

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