Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano is the daughter of Italian-American parents Lin, a fashion designer, and Tom, a film music editor. Alyssa was born in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn and grew up in a modest house on Staten Island.

One day, her babysitter, who was an aspiring dancer, dragged Alyssa along to a an open audtion for the first national tour of Annie. But it was Alyssa, not the sitter, who beat out 1,500 other wanna be stage actresses to snag a role. So at the tender age of seven, with her mother in tow, Alyssa joined the tour as July, one of the orphans.

After 18 months on the road, Alyssa Milano, who had begun to garner a reputation as an energetic and charismatic young actress, left Annie to be featured in off-Broadway productions and television commercials.

Then in 1983, at age 10, she landed her breakthrough role on the new sitcom "Who's the Boss?" as Tony Danza's saccharine sweet daughter, Samantha Micelli, a kid whose native Brooklyn accent rivaled her TV dad's. In order for Alyssa to accept the gig, the Milano family had to uproot and move 3,000 miles to Hollywood.

In 2000 Alyssa Milano caused a stir with her promotional work for Candies perfume. Her TV commercials were deemed too risqué and networks including the WB and Fox refused to air them. It was the same story with a couple of print ads, with youth-orientated magazines like Teen People and Seventeen choosing not to run them.

Alyssa left her Los Angeles home on June 21, 2005, for a month-long trip to India. She took some time off to help kids in need. She said she wanted to go to India ever since she was young. On her agenda were the tsunami-hit areas of Cuddalore, where she visited HIV-affected families. The filming of Charmed's eighth season started shortly after she returned, in late July.