Alyssa Milano's Real Name: Alyssa Jayne Milano

Quick answer: Alyssa Milano's real name is Alyssa Jayne Milano. She is an American actress, born December 19, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York, later of Who's the Boss? and Charmed.

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Alyssa Milano. Because Biography.com and TV Guide independently record the fuller form Alyssa Jayne Milano, that form is used in the title. Biography.com dates the birth to December 19, 1972, and, in the body of its profile, places the family in Brooklyn, New York. Its quick facts also give the birthplace as New York, New York. TV Guide does not give a full date; its birth-place line says New York City, New York, and its fast facts say her family lived in Brooklyn and later Staten Island.

Biography.com says her father, Thomas, is a film music editor and her mother, Lin, a fashion designer, and that she has a younger brother named Cory. It says a babysitter took her to an audition for a touring production of Annie, and that she spent the next 18 months on the road after being offered a role as one of the orphans. Biography.com's lede says she was 8 in a national tour of Annie, while a later paragraph says she was only seven at the time of the audition. TV Guide independently says she began her career at age 8 after beating out 1,500 girls for a traveling production of Annie.

Career highlights

Biography.com says that in 1984 she began starring in Who's the Boss? as Samantha Micelli, the daughter of Tony Danza's character, and that the show ran for eight seasons. TV Guide independently identifies that role and says she won three Young Artist Awards for it between 1986 and 1988. Biography.com says that during those years she also released several pop albums sold only in Japan, and that in 1985 she played the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Commando. TV Guide, which does not mention Commando, says she was offered a five-album record deal in Japan as a teen, with many of those albums hitting platinum status there.

Biography.com says that from 1997 to 1998 she appeared on Melrose Place, and that she then starred as Phoebe Halliwell on Charmed, which ran for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006. TV Guide independently lists those series among later credits and calls Charmed and Who's the Boss? her best-known roles. Biography.com says she became a UNICEF national ambassador, first visiting Angola in 2004; TV Guide independently calls her a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Alyssa Milano or Alyssa Jayne Milano are looking for the same American actress.