Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and former singer. Her acting career began after she appeared in the Broadway show Annie. Her childhood role as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss? made her famous, and an eight-year stint as Phoebe Halliwell on the supernatural series Charmed brought her a new round of fame. She also starred on the ABC series Romantically Challenged as Rebecca Thomas.

Milano has a female sports apparel line, Touch.

Recent roles

Her performance in Fear led to a starring role in Hugo Pool (1997), her first film released through cinemas since Commando. Despite the milestone, Milano was soon out of work and after a period of six months, she decided to return to television. She portrayed bad girl Jennifer Mancini on Melrose Place (1997–1998), Meg Winston in Spin City, and most notably as Phoebe Halliwell on the eight-year run of the popular hit tv series Charmed (1998–2006). Her role on Melrose Place was offered to the actress by Aaron Spelling himself. The stint garned her new fame and she was named the most successful and popular actress on the primetime soap, alongside Heather Locklear. Milano and close friend Holly Marie Combs became producers for Charmed during the show's fifth season.

She played the role of Eva Savealot 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 two-part Season 5 premiere of Charmed, "A Witch's Tail".

Milano's commercial work includes appearing in the "Josie" music video by Blink-182, as well as 2007 television ads for Veet and Sheer Cover.

Milano was part of TBS's 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 television sitcom, Single with Parents, which was pulled prior to production.

On March 20, 2009, it was announced that Milano would provide a voice for the Ghostbusters: The Video Game. In a 2010 interview, she told the press that she had 'a blast' working on the game, although she recalled it being 'odd' having to grunt in a room alone. It was speculated that following the voice over in the video game, she was set to star in Ghostbusters III, although Milano claimed she was never approached.

On March 24, 2009, her book on her baseball fandom, Safe At Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic, was released. Milano has signed on to star in and produce My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, a romantic comedy in which she plays a woman with a relationship dilemma.

Milano starred in the sitcom Romantically Challenged as Rebecca Thomas, a recently divorced single mom attorney in Pittsburgh who has not dated "since Bill Clinton was president". The series premiered on ABC on April 19, 2010. On why she accepted the role, Milano commented:

"I was so attracted to the writing. Our creative showrunner is Ricky Blitt from Family Guy and I was struck at how funny the female characters were written. Usually the female characters are written pretty straightforward, like the straight-man but with Ricky’s writing, the women get to be equally as funny. That was what hooked me. James Burrows, who’s our director, is another major part of what attracted me to the show. It just seemed like a really good package and something that I could commit to in the long-term."

On May 16, 2010, the series was cancelled after four episodes had aired. On the show's cancellation, Milano wrote on her website:

"It would be so very, very, easy for me to be upset and bitter about [it]. But… I'm not upset or bitter. [..] I am well aware that I'm in a business that sometimes makes decisions that are inexplicable. Dealing with those decisions is almost just as much a part of the job as memorizing my dialogue. My only true sadness comes from not being able to see Ricky, Mr. Burrows, Josh, Kelly and Kyle's face every day."

Posted in: Hollywood Actress