Alyssa Milano plays Phoebe Halliwell in the new WB hit show "Charmed".
Alyssa Jayne Milano was born in Brooklyn , New York on December 19th 1972. Seven years later, after seeing the Broadway play "Annie", she looked up to her parents and said: "I can do that".
Her professional acting debut came one year later at age eight, in the role of "July" in the tour of the very same Tony-winning Broadway musical. She spent over a year playing the role on tour before returning to New York to appear off-Broadway in the first American musical adaptation of "Jane Eyre" at the Theater Opera Music Institute. She also appeared in Wendy Wasserstein's one-act play,"Tender Offer" at the New York Ensemble Theater, "All Night Long" at the Second Stage and "Warning Signals"at the Manhattan Theater Club.
She made her television debut in 1984 at age 11 as"Samantha Micelli" in the ABC sitcom "Who's The Boss". It ran for eight years, in which time she won three Youth In Film awards for Best Supporting Actress. Alyssa: "It was a great way to grow up, but I was sad to see it end. It's like graduating High School when you're sad and excited at the same time."
Her first film (at age 10) was with Danny Aiello in "Old Enough". Two years later, on her first hiatus form "Who's The Boss", she played Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in the 1985 hit,"Commando" Alyssa:"I was so scared, cause I was too little to separate real life from the movies" ...and working with Schwarzennegger ? "Arnold helped me with my algebra homework".
And as a teenager, she recorded five albums in Japan, all of which went platinum. She also played a Tokyo music festival at the world famous Budokan in front of 40.000 people!
Alyssa was last seen on the little screen last November as Denise Harris in "To Brave Alaska" , an ABC-TV movie. In the film, Denise and her boyfriend are abandoned in a desperate arctic wilderness and only her determination and strength saves their lives. The film was actually made in Vancouver BC, and Alberta , Canada, and filming it was no walk in the park. Alyssa had to skidoo (snowmobile) two miles each day to the set, and do underwater scenes in a giant water tank. Alyssa: "We had our costumes padded with heat packs, but it got so cold that I would lay on the dog (Newman) to keep warm."
This year, Alyssa trekked out to Park City, Utah for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. It was there that her new movie, "Hugo Pool" premiered. She gave a ton of interviews, won the Spirit Award for women in film, and still found the time to snap some shots with her new digital camera so you could share the fun.
Alyssa stars in and produces the upcoming dramatic-thriller, "Below Utopia (Body Count)" starring Ice T and Justin Theroux. In this suspenseful drama, Daniel (Theroux), and Suzanne (Alyssa) are a young couple visiting his family on Thanksgiving. While in the basement of his family's mansion, "Utopia", they hear his family murdered above by a gang of art thieves. The two are forced to either hide in the basement or fight for their lives...
Alyssa returned to T.V. in her first regular series since "Who's the Boss?", on April 14th, 1997 when Alyssa joined the cast of Fox TV's "Melrose Place". She shot the last six episodes of the 1997 season. And in the 1998 season, she was a regular in all 33 episodes of the show. Alyssa played Jennifer Mancini, younger sister to Michael Mancini. Upon moving to Los Angeles from Boston, Jennifer started all kinds of trouble. She became Amanda's nemesis, Michael's partner in crime, and a lover to one of the characters!
Alyssa's Filmography:
