Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano
Born	Alyssa Jayne Milano
Other names	Lyssa, Lyssie, Lyss, Ally
Occupation(s)	Actress, Singer, Producer
Years active	1984 - present
Spouse	Cinjun Tate (1999) - divorced
Website	http://www.alyssa.com/

Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and former singer. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Phoebe Halliwell on the supernatural series Charmed or via her new female apparel clothing line Touch. She has a recurring role on My Name is Earl, playing Billie Cunningham. She got her start in acting by starring in the Broadway show Annie.

Early life and career

Milano was born in New York City, 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. Milano was born in Brooklyn but grew up in Staten Island, New York and was raised Catholic. 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?, alongside Tony Danza, Judith Light, Danny Pintauro and Katherine Helmond. She starred as Samantha Micelli, the daughter of Danza's character, Tony Micelli. When Milano won the role, her family relocated from Staten Island to Hollywood.

She produced a teen workout video in 1988 called Teen Steam. 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.

Later career

At the beginning of her career, Milano was known mainly for her role on Who's the Boss? (1984-1992). 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 Berkeley. 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 of 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. She is set to reappear in the fourth season of the Emmy winning show, reprising her role as Billie Cunningham. Not much is known about her storylines.

On stage, she starred in Tender Offer, a one-act play written by Wendy Wasserstein, All Night Long by American playwright John O'Keefe, and the first American musical adaptation of Jane Eyre. She returned to the theater in 1991, when she starred in and produced a Los Angeles production of Butterflies Are Free. Milano also appeared in the Josie music video by Blink-182, and in 2007, Milano began appearing on television again in commercials for Veet and SheerCover.

Milano was part of TBS' special coverage installment Hot Corner for the 2007 Major League Baseball playoffs. She reported at Fenway Park during the ALDS between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. She also reported at Chase Field during the NLCS between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

Milano starred in the 2008 film Pathology alongside Milo Ventimiglia, and was then cast in a new comedic television show, Single with Parents, for the 2008-2009 season.

Personal life

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."

File:Alyssa Milano MLB 2008.JPG

Alyssa Milano at MLB.com All-Star Party, Roseland Ballroom in NYC 7-13-2008

Milano has eight tattoos located variously, including one on each wrist and ankle, shoulder, neck, hip and lower back. Milano is also a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 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. She also has an interest in the Los Angeles Kings, a National Hockey League team and is involved with a related clothing line. In 2008, she expanded that to NFL football, as a New York Giants fan. Since Milano is in the same hometown as NFL Network's Rich Eisen (Staten Island), she revealed some of her family's connections with the New York Giants while she picked the winners of NFL games for week 7 of 2008. Milano is a vegetarian and appears in numerous PETA advertising campaigns for vegetarianism. Outside of acting, her hobbies include photography, humanitarian work, and spending time with her three dogs and eight horses. In 2005, she was ranked #5 in the '50 Cutest Child Stars -All Grown Up'.

Philanthropy

File:Alyssa Milano 3.jpg

Milano was appointed Founding Ambassador for the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to which she donated $250,000. The Global Network is an alliance formed to advocate and mobilize resources in the fight to control neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Milano will work to raise awareness of NTDs by educating the mainstream media and general public of the plight faced by the one billion people who are afflicted by NTDs, and the importance in controlling and preventing this global health crisis.

Milano is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States. She traveled to India, as well as Angola, to work with UNICEF field officers there. In the fall of 2004, she launched UNICEF's "Trick or Treat" campaign as an official spokesperson. She raised approximately $50,000 for South African women and children with AIDS by selling her own and a school's photo work. In support of PETA, she appeared in an advertisement for them, advocating vegetarianism, in a dress made entirely of vegetables.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1984	Old Enough	Diane
1985	Commando	Jenny Matrix	Award Nominated performance
1986	The Canterville Ghost	Jennifer Canterville	TV movie
1988	Crash Course	Vanessa Crawford	TV movie a.k.a. Driving Academy
	Dance 'Til Dawn	Shelley Sheridan	Award Nominated performance & TV movie
1989	Speed Zone!	Lurleen	a.k.a. Cannonball Fever
1992	Little Sister	Diana
	Where the Day Takes You	Kimmy
1993	The Webbers	Fan	TV movie
	Conflict of Interest	Eve
	Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story	Amy Fisher	TV movie
	Candles in the Dark	Sylvia Velliste	TV movie
1994	Confessions of a Sorority Girl	Rita Summers	TV movie
	Double Dragon	Marian Delario/Power Corps Chief
1995	Deadly Sins	Cristina
	Embrace of the Vampire	Charlotte Wells
	The Surrogate	Amy Winslow	TV movie
1996	Jimmy Zip		Short Film
	Poison Ivy II: Lily	Lily Leonetti
	Fear	Margo Masse
	Glory Daze	Chelsea
	To Brave Alaska	Denise Harris	TV movie
	Public Enemies	Amaryllis
1997	Below Utopia	Susanne
	Hugo Pool	Hugo Dugay
1998	Goldrush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure	Frances Ella 'Fizzy' Fitz	TV movie
2001	Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure	Angel	Award Nominated Performance
	Diamond Hunters	Tracey Van der Byl	TV movie
2002	Buying the Cow	Amy
	Kiss the Bride	Amy Kayne
2003	Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star	Cyndi
2005	Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone	26	Voice
2007	The Blue Hour	Allegra
2008	Wisegal	Patty Montanari	Lifetime original movie
	Pathology	Gwen Williamson
2009	Ghostbusters 3	Lyssa	Rumored

TV series

Year(s)	Title	Role	Seasons	Notes
1984-92	Who's the Boss?	Samantha Micelli	1–8	Won Six Awards for the role of Samantha in the hit TV show
1997-98	Melrose Place	Jennifer Mancini	5 & 6	Left after the end of Season 6 - this was an extended season that picked up in the summer of '98. She never appeared in Season 7, due to getting a lead role on the the WB hit show; Charmed.
1998-06	Charmed	Phoebe Halliwell	1–8	Was a producer with Holly Marie Combs from the beginning of Season Five. Also known as the longest running television show with all female leads.
2007-08	My Name is Earl	Billie Cunningham	3-4	Appeared in ten episodes in season 3. Milano is set to reprise her role as Billie Cunningham in the fourth season of the series.

TV appearances

Title	Season	Role	Episode titles	Notes
The Outer Limits	1	Hannah Valesic	Caught in the Act	Ep. 16
Spin City	2	Meg Winston	They Shoot Horses, Don't They?	Ep. 11
Spin City	5	Meg Winston	Rain on My Charades	Ep. 17
Fantasy Island	1	Gina Williams	Superfriends	Ep. 2
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius	2	April Gorlock	Win, Lose & Kaboom!	Voice
Family Guy	3	Herself	Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington	Ep. 3

Video Games

Title	Role	Notes
Ghostbusters: The Game	Lyssa	Rumored

Discography

The discography of American pop singer Alyssa Milano includes four studio albums, two compilations, and eleven singles. These albums were only commercially available in Japan, with the exception of one single that was only available in France and a charity single that was available in the US.

Studio albums

Year	Information	Peak positions
		JPN
1989	Look In My Heart First Studio Album Released: March 25, 1989 Formats: Vinyl, Cassette, CD	68
1989	Alyssa Second Studio Album Released: October 25, 1989 Formats: Vinyl, Cassette, CD	15
1991	Locked Inside A Dream Third Studio Album Released: May 21, 1991 Formats: Cassette, CD	19
1992	Do You See Me? Fourth Studio Album Released: September 18, 1992 Formats: Cassette, CD	47

Compilations

Year	Information	Peak positions
		JPN
1990	The Best In The World: Non-Stop Special Remix/Alyssa's Singles Remix/Hits Album Released: February 21, 1990 Formats: Cassette, CD	9
1995	The Very Best Of Alyssa Milano Hits Album Released: 1995 (Promo Only) Formats: CD	—

Singles

Year	Single	Album	Peak positions
			U.S.	U.S. AC	JPN
1989	"What a Feeling"	Look in My Heart	-	-	-
	"Look In My Heart"		-	-	-
	"Straight to the Top"		-	-	-
	"I Had a Dream"	Alyssa	-	-	-
	"Happiness"		-	-	-
1990	"The Best in the World"	The Best in the World	-	-	-
	"I Love When We're Together"1	Single Only	-	-	-
1991	"New Sensation"	Locked Inside a Dream	-	-	-
	"Voices That Care" 1	Single Only	11	6	-
1992	"Do You See Me?"	Do You See Me?	-	-	-
1993	"No Secret" 2	Locked Inside a Dream	-	-	-

Footnotes:

• ¹ Non-album Single.
• ² Only released in France.

Other recordings

• Teen Steam Theme song from Alyssa Milano's Teen Steam Workout Video (1988)

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Result	Notes
1986	Young Artist Award	Won	Best Young Supporting Actress in a Television Series (Who's the Boss)
1987	Young Artist Award	Nominated	Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress Starring in a Feature Film - Comedy or Drama (Commando)
	Young Artist Award	Won	Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress, Starring in a Television, Comedy or Drama Series (Who's the Boss)
1988	Young Artist Award	Won	Best Young Female Superstar in Television (Who's the Boss)
	Kids' Choice Award	Won	Favorite TV Actress (Who's the Boss)
1989	Young Artist Award	Nominated	Best Young Actress in a Special, Pilot, Movie of the Week or Mini-Series (Dance til Dawn)
	Kids' Choice Award	Won	Favorite TV Actress (Who's the Boss)
1990	Blimp Award	Won	Favorite TV Actress (Who's the Boss)
2001	Annie Award	Nominated	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production (Lady and the Tramp II)
2005	Blimp Award	Nominated	Favorite TV Actress (Charmed)
2006	Teen Choice Award	Nominated	TV - Choice Actress (Charmed)

External links

• Official Site
• Alyssa Milano at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome person