Alyssa Biography


Alyssa Milano was born to the Italian fashion designer Lin, and American film music editor Tom. She was born in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, and grew up in a modest house on Staten Island. At the age 7, her babysitter (who was an aspiring dancer) dragged her along to an open audition for the first national tour of the famous musical Annie. But it wasn't babysitter who got a role, but Alyssa. She beat out 1,500 other wanna be stage actesses to snag a role. She became July, one of the orphans. So at the tender age of 7, with her mother in tow, Alyssa already joined a tour.
Alyssa toured for 18 months, and slowly got a reputation as an engergetic and charmismatic young actress. After those 18 months, she left Annie to be feautred in off-Broadway productions and television commercials.
Then in 1983, at the age of 10, she got her breakthrough role. She played Samantha Micelli, Tony Danza's saccharine sweet daughter, in the sitcom Who's The Boss?. Her native Brooklyn accent rivaled her TV dad's. But order for Alyssa to accept the role, the Milano family had to uproot and move 3000 miles to Hollywood... which they did. Alyssa won the Youth In Film Award for Best Supporting Actress three times for that role.
Alyssa starred in a couple of movies, and proved she could also sing next to acting. Her concerts attracted over 40,000 people, and in Japan the five records she brought out, all became platinum!
After years in Who's The Boss, Alyssa disappeared from the Hollywood-radar. But that didn't last long. Soon, she got more roles and she starred in many movies. She also acted in the series Melrose Place for a while.
Now of course, she is already 6 years part of the Charmed cast, from which we know her as the witchy Phoebe Halliwell.