Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969, in The Bronx, New York City, New York, to teacher Lupe López and computer specialist David López, both of whom were Puerto Rican immigrants who had moved to the United States during their childhoods.
Lupe and David López eventually met while living in New York City, and their daughters would have a stable, middle-class upbringing. Jennifer's early life was marked by a passion for music, particularly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like salsa, merengue, and bachata, as well as mainstream genres like pop, hip-hop, and R&B.
As a child, Jennifer was fascinated by the film industry, citing the 1961 musical West Side Story as her biggest influence. At the age of five, she began taking singing and dancing lessons, and aside from her budding entertainment career, Jennifer was also a devout Catholic, attending eight years of Catholic elementary school at Holy Family in The Bronx, before graduating from all-girls prep school Preston High School after a four-year stay.
At school, Jennifer was an exceptional athlete, participating in track and field and tennis, and she spent most of her upbringing in a two-story house in the Castle Hill neighborhood. At the age of 18, Jennifer moved out of her parents' home and briefly worked in a law office, taking dance classes at night.
Her big break came when she was offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy In Living Color, where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, and after a two-year stay, Lopez went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's My Family, and her career went into overdrive when she portrayed late Tejana singer Selena in the biopic Selena.
