Alyssa Milano was born the 10th December of 1972 to Italian-American parents, Tom and Lin Milano. Lin was a fashion designer and talent manager, while her father, Thomas M. Milano, was a film music editor and boating. She was born in Brooklyn in New York City, but grew up in Staten Island together with her parents and younger brother Cory (born 1982). Her little brother is also an actor, but has more recently started a band called Chloroform Days, in which he is the lead singer. They were raised Roman Catholic. In an interview Alyssa did in 2003, she recalled having had a good childhood, having grown up in a “loving, true family.” When Alyssa got her first television role at the age of 11 in “Who’s the boss?”,  her family relocated from Staten Island to Hollywood.

Alyssa is born with dyslexia, which makes it harder to learn her monologues. In 2004, she explained how she deal 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.”

Career

Alyssa’s career started in 1980 when she landed a part of one of the orphans, June, in the musical Annie, which toured throughout the United States for 14 months. She was one of the four picked out of an audition with over 1500 girls. Hot on the heels of her success in the musical Annie, Alyssa next won the part of Adele in the musical version of Jayne Eyre and followed that with a role in Tender Offer at the New York Ensemble Studio Theatre. Alyssa next appeared in John O’Keefe’s All Night Long at Manhattan’s Second Stage Theatre.

Her feature film debut came in 1983 when she appeared in the movie Old Enough.Wanting to get into television, because she hadn’t done that before, she started auditioning for some TV pilots. At the age of eleven, she earned her first major role in the TV show Who’s the Boss?, alongside fellow Brooklyn native Tony Danza, Judith Light, Danny Pintauro, and Katherine Helmond. She starred as Samantha Micelli, the daughter of Danza’s character, Tony Micelli. Lyssa stayed at the show from 1984 untill 1992. When her role on Who’s the Boss ended, Milano feared having trouble to obtaining other roles, aware of the fate of many grown-up child stars in that period. Nevertheless, she was excited when she found out the show was cancelled, being ready “to move on.”

During the run of Who’s the Boss? Alyssa ventured out into the movie world, appearing in the classic Schwarzenegger movie “Commando“. By the late 1980s, Milano was established as a teen idol, appearing in made-for-television teen films such as “Crash Course” and “Dance ’til Dawn” (both 1988). Both projects allowed her to work alongside close personal friend Brian Bloom. Bloom and his brother Scott worked with Milano in episodes of Who’s the Boss. This working comradere would later expand in 1993 when Milano guest starred in Brian’s series “The Webbers”. She produced a teen workout video in 1988 called Teen Steam and achieved some fame outside the USA with her music career, which lasted until the early 1990s. In 1991, Milano wanted to quit acting to pursue an academic career, but was unable to gain release from her contract.

At the beginning of her career, Milano was known mainly for her role on Who’s the Boss?. She tried to shed her “nice girl” image  by appearing in several movies targeted at adults, such as “Embrace of the Vampire” and  “Confessions of a Sorority Girl” in 1994, “Deadly Sins”  and “Poison Ivy II: Lily” in 1995 where she starred opposite Johnathon Schaech and Xander Berkeley. The transition started in 1992, when Milano auditioned for female lead as a homeless teenager in the independent film “Where the Day Takes You”. Although the crew was reluctant to sign a former child star, she was given a small role as a prostitute in the production. She was noticed by the media, that helped her land the controversial role of Amy Fisher in the high profile TV movie “Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story.” In 1994, she was considered to replace Shannen Doherty in Beverly Hills, 90210.In 1996, Milano appeared opposite Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon in the thriller “Fear”.Her performance in Fear  led to a starring role in “Hugo Pool” (1997), her first film released through cinemas since Commando. Despite the milestone, Lyssa was soon out of work and after a period of six months, she decided to return to television.

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 the eight year run of the popular series Charmed (1998-2006). Both 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”.

During her career, Alyssa also appeared in many commercials. These include an appearance in the “Josie” music video by Blink-182, as well as 2007 television ads for Veet and Sheer Cover. She also appeared in an early 80s commercial for Hi-C.

In 2008, Alyssa landed another movie role in the 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 Alyssa 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.

Later on, Alyssa got a part 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. She had this to say about the show:

“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.”

Unfortunately, On May 16, 2010, the series was cancelled after only four episodes had aired. On the show’s cancellation,  Lyssa 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.”

In the future, Milano will co-star with Owen Wilson, Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate in the romantic comedy “Hall Pass” (2011), in which she was assigned in February 2010. She will also be producing and leading the cast of Lifetime’s TV film “Sundays at Tiffany’s”. The latter will be her second collaboration with Lifetime, the first being 2008’s “Wisegal”.

Personal Life

Alyssa dated actor Corey Haim from 1987 to 1990. Tre years later, she was engaged to fellow actor Scott Wolf. She was married to singer–songwriter Cinjun Tate of Remy Zero in 1999; they were divorced later that year. She dated Charmed co-star Brian Krause (Leo) for a while during the third and fourth season of the show. She briefly dated Justin Timberlake in 2002.

After one year of dating, she and CAA agent David Bugliari were engaged December 18, 2008.Milano and Bugliari married on August 15, 2009 in New Jersey, at the home of Bugliari’s family.

In February 2011, it was revealed that Alyssa was expecting her first child with her husband David. The website “people” was among the first ones able to cofirm the news, and posted the following article on February 22, 2011:

Alyssa Milano is going to be a mom!The actress, 38, and her husband Dave Bugliari, 32, are expecting their first child, Milano’s rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.”They’re just over the moon,” says a friend of the Who’s The Boss and Charmed alum, who’s due in early fall. “They are so excited.”Milano and Bugliari – an agent at the Creative Artists Agency – wed in August 2009 in New Jersey after meeting three years prior.

When Alyssa was around six months pregnant, she revealed on her twitter that they where expecting a baby boy. The actress told PEOPLE she was having a lovely pregnancy and knew her husband would be “the most amazing father ever.” And before she even met her son, he was already making her laugh. Milano told PEOPLE in May, “Every time I get an ultrasound, he’s doing really funny things like sucking his thumb or elbowing me.”

She interacted a lot with her fans through out her pregnancy on her twitter account, and kept fans up-to-date on her everything.  “I want to really enjoy my child. Everyone keeps telling me how fast it goes by and to spend as much time with them as possible.'” Alyssa and husband David Bugliari welcomed a son named Milo Thomas Bugliari on Wednesday August 31 at 9:27 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs., and was 19 inches long.

This biography is put together by the staff at Alyssa Milano Online, with help from IMDB, Alyssa interviews and Wikipedia. Please do not repost this anywhere else without our permission.