Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1970. Her parents came to New York from Ponce, Puerto Rico. She is the middle of three sisters. At the age of 7, young Jennifer went on her first tour - around New York City with her dance class.At the age of 16 Jennifer got a little break with a bit part in the film ''My Little Girl'' (starring Mary Stuart Masterson). But Jennifer's first love was still dance, and when she read about a scholarship to a dance school in Manhattan, she went down and grabbed the opportunity. At this time she was taking a full time course load at Baruch, working in a law office and taking her dance classes. Eventually this would lead to a falling out with her mother, who didn't want Jennifer to pursue dance as a career. When her mother gave her the ever popular ''you live by my rules as long as you live under my roof'' speech Jennifer took that as her cue to break out on her own. Not having anywhere else to live, she took up residence in the building where she took her dance classes. A year and a half of auditioning with no success brought Jennifer to the verge of a breakdown. But salvation would come in the form of a tour that sent her dancing across Japan. Before this, she had auditioned to be a ''Fly Girl'' for the show ''In Living Color'' but she had been turned down. Upon returning from Japan, she received a call from ''In Living Color'' asking her to audition again. This time she made the cut and it was off to Hollywood. 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.Lopez was briefly married, in 1997, to Ojani Noa, a model and actor.

Lopez’s first big break came in 1997, when she was chosen to play the title role in Selena, a biopic of the Tejano pop singer Selena Quintillana Perez, who was killed by a crazed fan in 1995. She earned widespread praise for her performance, including a Golden Globe nomination, and became the highest-paid Latina actress in history with her paycheck of $1 million. That same year, Lopez starred in the forgettable Anaconda and in Blood and Wine, opposite Jack Nicholson. Her role as federal marshal Karen Sisco in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, a film based on the Elmore Leonard novel and co-starring George Clooney, further enhanced her image as a bankable movie star.

However, it was her role in Selena that led to the revival of her music career. Major label backing, heavyweight producers of the calibre of Emilio Estefan, Rodney Jerkins and Sean "Puffy" Combs, and the attendant crossover success of Martin and Iglesias, made 1999's On The 6 one of the summer's most hotly anticipated releases. The album, named after the train line the young Lopez used to take into the city, was a predictable commercial success. The first single "If You Had My Love" (produced by Jerkins), topped the US charts for five weeks. The follow-up, "Waiting For Tonight", was also a transatlantic hit. The album's other tracks, most of which were co-written by executive producer Corey Rooney, included "Feelin' So Good" (featuring cameos from rappers Fat Joe and Big Punisher), a duet with Marc Anthony on "No Me Ames" and the Trackmasters-produced "Should Have Never".Her first album On The 6 did quite well on the charts and her second album, J.Lo came out the same time as her movie The Wedding Planner. Both hit number one in the same week. The album, fueled by the success of her hit single,went platinum within two weeks, making Lopez—along with Ricky Martin—one of the most influential examples of the growing Latin cultural influence in pop music.

Jennifer also managed to become a favorite subject for the tabloids. When she began to focus more on her music career, she began dating rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs. In December of 1999, J. Lo and "Puffy" were arrested as they left the scene of a shooting at a NYC nightclub. Jennifer was not charged, and Puffy was acquitted on the charges he faced. The couple split up on Valentine's Day 2001 and Jennifer married dancer/choreographer Cris Judd on September 29th, 2001. Early in 2000, Lopez was nominated for Best Dance Performance for her second hit single "Waiting for Tonight," but lost the award to veteran diva Cher. In the summer of 2000, she starred in the science fiction-thriller The Cell, in which she plays a child psychologist helping to track a terrifying serial killer.

Shortly after her breakup from Combs was made public, Lopez began dating Cris Judd, a dancer who appeared in the video for her hit single "Love Don't Cost a Thing." After much media speculation, the couple announced their engagement in August 2001. They were married in late September and lived together in Los Angeles.

2002 kept J. Lo busy on the acting/singing/tabloid fronts. She appeared as an abused wife who trains to fight back in Enough, she separated from hubby Cris Judd in June 2002 and became engaged to Ben Affleck in November 2002. She ended the year appearing in Maid in Manhattan opposite Ralph Fiennes.

She did run into some career and personal problems in 2003. The "Bennifer" duo did a ton of publicity surrounding their box office and critical bomb Gigli. They called off their lavish wedding in the fall citing that there was too much "media attention". The cancellation only served to turn up the heat on the couple. Jennifer's camp announced that the couple had split in January of 2004.