Alyssa Jayne Milano was born on December 19, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York to Lin
and Tom, a fashion designer and a film music editor. She grew up on Staten
Island with her sister, Cory Milano. When she was 7 years old, her babysitter, a
dance student, took Alyssa with her to an open audition for the first national
tour of Annie. As it turned out, Alyssa got the part of an orphan, and
the babysitter wasn't cast at all. Alyssa joined the Annie tour in July
and stayed with the group for 18 months. She left to work off-Broadway and in
television commercials. In 1983, 10 year old Alyssa was cast in her breakthrough
role as Samantha Micelli on Who's The Boss?. The Milano family packed up
and moved cross country to Hollywood.
Alyssa spent most of her childhood on the set of Who's The Boss?, which
ran for eight years. In between shoots, she attended The Buckley School
in Sherman Oaks, CA. When she was 16, she came out with her own, best-selling
exercise video, Teen Steam. At the same time, Alyssa's picture was used
as the basis for Ariel during the animation of The Little Mermaid (1989).
A few years later, in 1993, Alyssa caused quite a stir when she posed nude in
Bikini magazine. She has gone through several tribulations as people have
misused her nude photos, and in 1998 she was awarded $203,000 in a default
judgment against one of the web designers that posted nude pictures of her
without her permission.
Besides a long list of TV movies and some forgettable big screen appearances,
Alyssa is remembered for her roles in Fear (1996), Hugo Pool
(1997)- for which she was awarded the Spirit Award at the Sundance Film
Felstival, and Melrose Place (1997). Alyssa currently stars as a witch on
the WB's Charmed.
On top of her acting career, Alyssa has also released 5 music albums in Japan:
Alyssa, Look In My Heart, Best in the World, Locked in a Dream, and Do
You See Me?. All of the albums went platinum. Alyssa is also well known as
the 1-800-Collect girl, and the spokesperson for Candie's perfume.
Alyssa has seven tattoos:
Right shoulder blade: rosary beads - in homage to her Catholic upbringing.
Left wrist: Buddhist symbol of Om which mystically embodies the essence of
the entire universe.
Right wrist: Ouroboros- snake biting its tail. A symbol of rebirth that she
had done after her divorce and spent time in South Africa.
Lower back: sacred heart - a symbol of passion and commitment to life.
Hip: fairy kneeling in grass - as a token of her youth; her first tattoo.
Left ankle: angel
Right ankle: flower garland
***All other tattoos that you see on her on Charmed have been
airbrushed on.
Alyssa had been engaged to Scott Wolf, star of Party of Five, at one
time in 1993, but the engagement was broken off in 1994, and they went their
separate ways. A while later, Alyssa Milano married Cinjun August Tate, lead
singer of Remy Zero, on New Year's Day 1999. The marriage didn't last long, and
they divorced later that same year on November 20th.
