Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born in the Castle Hill section of the South Bronx on July 24, 1969. The middle of three musically inclined sisters, Leslie, a homemaker and Lynda, an entertainment consultant for New York's Channel 11, Jennifer always dreamed of being a multi-tasking superstar. Jennifer's parents Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez were both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the second largest Puerto Rican city. The two were then brought to the United States in their childhoods, and eventually met while living in New York City. While Jennifer is of Puerto Rican descent her paternal grandmother's parents were Europeans who settled on the island of Puerto Rico.

As a child Jennifer enjoyed a variety of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like salsa, merengue and bachata, and mainstream music like Pop and Hip hop. Although she loved music, the film industry also intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita Moreno musical Amor sin barreras (1961). At age five, Jennifer began taking singing and dancing lessons. Jennifer was also a Catholic schoolgirl, attending eight years at an all-girls catholic high school, located in the Bronx, before graduating from Preston High School after a four- year stay. At school, Jennifer was a good athlete and participated in tennis. At age eighteen Lopez moved out of her parent's home. During this time Lopez worked at a law firm while she took dancing jobs at night. Her big break came when she was offered a job in the comedy "In Living Color" (1990). After a two-year stay at "In Living Color" (1990) where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, Lopez then went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's My Family (1995) and her career went into over-drive when she portrayed slain Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla Perez in Selena (1997)