KEEPING UP WITH JLO

Jennifer Lynn López was born on July 24 1969 in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, and raised in its Castle Hill neighbourhood. Her parents, David López and Guadalupe Rodríguez, were born in Puerto Rico and met in New York City.

Her first professional job (1989) was touring Europe with the musical revue show Golden Musicals of Broadway for five months. She danced alongside MC Hammer in an episode of Yo! MTV Raps and travelled around Japan for four months as a chorus member in Synchronicity. When she returned to the US, she was hired as a backup dancer for New Kids on the Block’s performance of Games at the 1991 American Music Awards.

FILM

Lopez began her career as a dancer, making her television debut as a Fly Girl on the sketch comedy television series In Living Color. She 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.

With her casting as the singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in the biopic Selena (1997), Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn $1-million. In 1997, she starred opposite Ice Cube in the horror film Anaconda. She earned her second ALMA Award for her performance in Out of Sight (1998).

She has since starred in many films, including The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), and The Back-up Plan (2010). Media scrutiny and the failure of her film Gigli (2003) led to a downturn in her career. She’s since starred in Marry Me (2022), The Mother (2023) and This Is Me...Now: A Love Story (2024), the latter of which accompanies her ninth studio album.

MUSIC

Lopez released two albums in 2002: J to tha L–O! The Remixes and This Is Me... Then. In 2011, she returned to prominence as a judge on American Idol and released the album Love? In the latter 2010s, she performed a concert residency, starred in the police drama series Shades of Blue (2016–2018), and served as a judge on World of Dance (2017–2020).

NICKNAMES

J. Lo, La Lopez, Lola, Jenny from the Block, La Guitarra, La Diva del Bronx.

SPOUSES

Ben Affleck: July 16, 2022 to the present; Marc Anthony: June 5, 2004 to June 16, 2014 (divorced, two children); Cris Judd: September 29, 2001 to January 26, 2003 (divorced); Ojani Noa: February 22, 1997 to June 1, 1998 (divorced). She was also in a long relationship with David Cruz, her highschool boyfriend, until the mid-’90s. She would later say of Cruz, “You get lucky, you have a first love like that.”