Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Jayne Milano was born in New York City (December 19, 1972), the daughter of Italian-American parents Lin, a former fashion designer and talent manager, and Thomas M. Milano, a film music editor and a well-known boating enthusiast. She has a younger brother, Cory (born in 1982), who is also an actor, but has more recently started a band, called Chloroform Days, in which he is the lead singer.
She began her career at the age of eight when she won a part in an open audition for a national tour of Annie. She appeared in television commercials and off-Broadway productions. . At the age of eleven, she earned her first major role in the TV show Who’s the Boss?. In 1985, Milano was in the film Commando as Jenny Matrix who was John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger)’s daughter. A few years later this film was shown in Japan prompting a producer to offer Alyssa a five album record deal.
At the beginning of her career she tried to shed her “nice girl” image by appearing in several films targeted at adults, such as Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1992), Embrace of the Vampire (1994), Confessions of a Sorority Girl (1994), Deadly Sins (1995), and Poison Ivy II: Lily (1995), where she starred opposite Johnathon Schaech and Xander Berkley. She gained more mainstream success in TV as Jennifer Mancini on Melrose Place (1997-1998), Meg Winston in Spin City and most notably as Phoebe Halliwell on Charmed (1998-2006). Both Milano and close friend Holly Marie Combs became producers for Charmed during the show’s fifth season. She also played the role of Eva Savelot in MCI’s 1-800-COLLECT commercials. In 2007, Milano filmed a pilot for ABC entitled Reinventing the Wheelers. The series was not picked up for the 2007-2008 season, but instead, Milano appeared in ten episodes on the show My Name is Earl. This reunited her with Jaime Pressly who guest starred in the Season 5 premiere of Charmed, A Witch’s Tail. Milano was cast in a new comedic television show (Single with Parents) for the 2008-2009 season.
Personal Life: Outside of acting, her hobbies include photography, humanitarian work and spending time with her three dogs and eight horses. Milano suffers from dyslexia. In an interview in 2004, Milano explained how she deals with the disorder:
“I’ve stumbled over words while reading from TelePrompTers. Sir John Gielgud, whom I worked with on The Canterville Ghost years ago, gave me great advice. When I asked how he memorized his monologues, he said, ‘I write them down.’ I use that method to this day. It not only familiarizes me with the words, it makes them my own.”
Milano is an avid fan of tattoos, and has eight of them located in various areas of her body, including both wrists, both ankles, shoulder, neck, hip and lower back. In 2007 she created her own signature “Touch” line of team apparel for female baseball fans, currently available on Major League Baseball’s website, along with her own baseball blog.