alyssa milano

By the age of 7, Alyssa knew she wanted to become an actress, after seeing the Broadway play Annie. One year later, she made her acting debut with the role of "July" in the same musical, and toured with the play for 18 months. After that time, Alyssa left Annie to star in off-Broadway productions and TV commercials.

Milano made her television debut in 1984, with her role as Tony Danza's daughter in the popular sitcom Who's the Boss?, which ran for eight years. And only one year after she starred in the popular sitcom, Alyssa had a small role playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in 1985's Commando.

While her role on Who's The Boss continued to flourish, garnering her millions of fans and even a best-selling exercise video in 1988 called Teen Steam, Alyssa starred in a bunch of forgettable TV movies including The Canterville Ghost (1986), Crash Course (1988) and Voices That Care (1991).

In 1989, a picture of Alyssa served as the inspiration behind Disney's The Little Mermaid and was used to create Ariel in the classic movie. However, after that, Milano also starred in the made-for-TV movie Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993), about the true story of Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco.

alyssa grows up

The '90s were also a time when Alyssa wanted to shed her little girl image and prove that she's a sexy adult woman. She did so by starring in the sexually charged, albeit terrible movies Embrace of the Vampire (1994) and Poison Ivy II (1996). It worked, as popular men's mag FHM voted her No. 4 in its 100 Sexiest Women list in 2001 and 2003.

She then starred alongside relative newcomers Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg in the surprise hit Fear (1996).

Also in 1996, Alyssa starred in To Brave Alaska, a made-for-TV flick about a couple fighting for their lives while abandoned in Alaska.

alyssa joins melrose place

In 1997, Milano then returned to television full-time as troublemaker Jennifer Mancini in the primetime Aaron Spelling soap, Melrose Place. She was cast as a regular for one season, and became the enemy of fellow beauty Amanda, played by Heather Locklear.

In December 1998, Alyssa was awarded $230,000 US, after she sued a Web designer that allegedly posted nude pictures of her without her permission.

alyssa and wb's charmed

While her role on Melrose Place was hot in 1997, Milano attended the Sundance Film Festival, where her new movie, Hugo Pool, also starring Robert Downey Jr., Sean Penn and Patrick Dempsey, premiered. At the festival, Alyssa was awarded with the Spirit Award for women.

In 1998, Milano settled into a television role in which she portrays one of the three witches on the WB's Charmed, as the sister of fellow witches Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs (Shannen Doherty quit in 2001 and was replaced by McGowan).

But that didn't stop Alyssa from starring in big screen films. In 2003, Alyssa conveniently starred alongside David Spade in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and in Dinotopia: Curse of the Ruby Sunstone (2004).

alyssa releases five albums

Alyssa also continued doing TV commercials and was well-known as the spokesperson for 1-800-Collect and Candie's perfume, the latter for which she did some very provocative commercials and print ads.

But Alyssa didn't stop at TV and movies; she released five albums entitled Alyssa, Look In My Heart (both in 1989), Best In The World (1990), Locked In a Dream (1991) and Do You See Me? (1992) in Japan, which all went platinum.

As for her love life, Alyssa was engaged to Party of Five star Scott Wolf in 1993, but the couple called it off in 1994, and went their separate ways. In January 1999, on New Year's Day, Alyssa wed musician Cinjun Augustus Tate (lead singer for the rock group Remy Zero), but divorced him that same year in November. But don't worry, Alyssa and her seven tattoos will surely find someone to love her.