Singer Jennifer Lopez and actress Anna Paquin are celebrating their birthdays today.
Jennifer Lopez, 45
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Actress, author, fashion designer, dancer, producer and singer Jennifer Lopez turns 45 today. After a minor role in the 1986 film My Little Girl, Lopez decided to enter the entertainment industry. She gained her first regular high-profile job as a Fly Girl dancer on In Living Color in 1991, where she remained a regular until she decided to pursue an acting career in 1993. Her first leading role was in the film Selena, a biographical film about the singer's life, in 1997. She ventured into the music industry in 1999 with her debut studio album, On the 6, joining a select few in successfully converting from a film to a music career.
With the simultaneous release of her second studio album, J.Lo, and her film The Wedding Planner in 2001, Lopez became the first person to have a number one album and film in the same week. Lopez enjoyed a highly successful business career. She has used her position as a global icon of pop culture to begin her own business empire, consisting of various clothing lines, accessories, fragrances, a production company, television shows and a charitable foundation among other business interests. She has established herself as a prominent figure in both the film and music industry, in a career spanning four decades.
In April 2014, the official song for the 2014 FIFA World Cup performed by Pitbull, Lopez and Brazilian recording artist Claudia Leitte, "We Are One (Ole Ola)," was released. Lopez's eighth studio album, A.K.A., was released in June 2014. She also has a range of upcoming acting projects, including the low-budget thriller The Boy Next Door, the independent film Lila & Eve, alongside Viola Davis, and the animated feature Home alongside Steve Martin and Rihanna. NBC has also ordered a 13-episode television drama, in which Lopez will executive produce and star.The series, titled Shades of Blue, is expected to air in the 2015–16 television season, with Ryan Seacrest also serving as producer.
Lopez married singer Marc Anthony in 2004. She gave birth to twins, son Maximilian David and daughter Emme Maribel, in 2008. The couple split in 2012 and their divorce was finalized in 2014.
Anna Paquin, 32
image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com
Actress and producer Anna Paquin turns 32 today. Paquin made her film debut in The Piano in 1993, a role which earned her an Academy award for Best Supporting actress. In 1996, she appeared in two films, a young Jane in Jane Eyre and the lead in Fly Away Home playing a young girl who, after her mother dies, moves in with her father and finds solace in taking care of orphaned goslings. As a teenager, she had minor roles in films including A Walk on the Moon, Amistad, Hurlyburly, She's All That and Almost Famous.
Paquin returned to worldwide fame with her role as the mutant Rogue in the Marvel Comics movie X-Men in 2000, its sequel X2 in 2003 and its third installment, X-Men: The Last Stand, in 2006. She played Elaine Goodale in the HBO film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in 2007 and she played the role of Laurie in the horror film Trick 'r Treat, which was released in 2009.
Paquin was cast as waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood in 2008, her first role in a TV series. The show is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana.
Paquin married her True Blood co-star, Stephen Moyer, on 21 August 2010. Paquin and Moyer have a son, Charlie, and a daughter, Poppy, who are fraternal twins born in September 2012. Paquin also has a stepson, Billy, and a stepdaughter, Lilac.