JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT

Name: Jennifer Love Hewitt                                                                                 
Born: 21 February 1979 Waco, Texas, U.S.A.                                                                 
                                                                                                           
Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer-songwriter.                 
She is well-known for her television and film roles in the Fox television series                           
Party of Five, as Sarah Reeves, and also starred in I Know What You Did Last                               
Summer and its sequel, as Julie James. Hewitt can currently be seen on the CBS                             
television series Ghost Whisperer, as Melinda Gordon, a young newlywed who                                 
communicates with the dead.                                                                                 
                                                                                                           
Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Mae (née Shipp), a                               
speech-language pathologist, and Herbert Daniel Hewitt, a medical technician.                               
Hewitt grew up in Nolanville, Texas; after the divorce of her parents, Hewitt                               
and her only sibling, Todd Hewitt, were brought up by her mother. Her first name                           
was given to her by her brother, after a girl he was fond of as a youngster,                               
while her middle name, "Love", was given to her by her mother after her best                               
friend in college.                                                                                         
                                                                                                           
As a young girl, Hewitt was attracted to music which led to her first encounters                           
with the entertainment industry. At the age of three, she sang "The Greatest                               
Love of All" at a livestock show. Just a year after that, at a restaurant-dance                             
hall, she entertained an audience with her version of "Help Me Make It Through                             
the Night". By the time she was five, Hewitt already had tap dancing and ballet                             
in her portfolio. At nine, she became a member of the Texas Show Team (which                               
also toured in the Soviet Union). At the age of ten, at the suggestion of talent                           
scouts, she moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother to pursue a career                           
in both acting and singing.                                                                                 
                                                                                                           
Jennifer Love Hewitt as one of the main dancers in the Dance! Workout With                                 
Barbie video, released in 1992.                                                                             
                                                                                                           
After moving to Los Angeles, Hewitt appeared in more than twenty television                                 
commercials. Her first break came as a child actor on the Disney Channel variety                           
show Kids Incorporated (1989 – 1991), where she was credited as just Love Hewitt.                         
During this time she danced in and sang all the songs for a live action video                               
called "Dance! Workout With Barbie" released by Buena Vista.                                               
                                                                                                           
In 1993, she played Pierce Brosnan's daughter in a pilot for NBC called Running                             
Wilde, which featured Brosnan as a reporter for Auto World magazine whose                                   
stories cover his own wild auto adventures, but the series wasn't picked up and                             
the pilot never aired. She later played on television in several short-lived                               
series, such as Fox's Shaky Ground (1992 – 1993), ABC's Byrds of Paradise (1994),                         
and McKenna (1994 – 1995). Finally, Hewitt became a young star after landing the                         
role of Sarah Reeves on the popular Fox Television show Party of Five (1995 –                             
1999), joining the cast during its second season. She continued the same role in                           
the short-lived Party of Five spin-off, Time of Your Life (1999). Hewitt was                               
also one of the producers, but the show was cancelled after only half a season.                             
                                                                                                           
She made her film debut in the independent film Munchie (1992). Hewitt became a                             
film star after a lead role in the horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).                     
The film had great box-office success (125,000,000 U.S. dollars worldwide), and                             
Hewitt became one of the most popular young stars in the USA (together with her                             
co-stars: Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar). She                               
also appeared in the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), which                             
was not as successful as the first film but brought in more money than the first                           
on its opening weekend. Other notable film roles included the high-school comedy                           
Can't Hardly Wait (1998) and a starring role with Sigourney Weaver in the                                   
romantic comedy Heartbreakers (2001).                                                                       
                                                                                                           
In 2000, Hewitt appeared in The Audrey Hepburn Story. That same year, she was                               
the "most popular actress on television" due to her Q-rating (a measurement of a                           
celebrity's popularity) of thirty-seven. For that reason, Nokia chose her to                               
become its spokesperson, because of her "fresh image", and her being "a symbol                             
of youthfulness and wholesomeness".                                                                         
                                                                                                           
In 2001, she appeared in the music video for the Enrique Iglesias song, "Hero",                             
as the singer's love interest.                                                                             
                                                                                                           
Hewitt wrote I'm Gonna Love You for the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame II                               
because, although she was a well-known singer at the time, her character                                   
Madellaine was the only character who didn't sing in the movie. The song won an                             
award for Best Song on DVD Awards.                                                                         
                                                                                                           
Since September 2005, Hewitt has starred in the television series Ghost                                     
Whisperer. In Australia, Ghost Whisperer has been popular since its introduction;                           
in the United States, the show averages 9-11 million viewers for each new                                   
episode. Hewitt has also auditioned for many roles. She lost the role of "Juliet"                           
in Romeo + Juliet to Claire Danes at the last moment. She also had to give up                               
the role of "Darlene" in Brokedown Palace because of scheduling conflicts.                                 
Hewitt also auditioned for the role of "Elektra" in Daredevil.                                             
                                                                                                           
Hewitt confirmed that she would not pose nude or do nude scenes in movies.                                 
                                                                                                           
In 1991, Meldac funded the recording of Hewitt's first album, when she was just                             
12. The album was only released in Japan in 1992 where Hewitt became a pop star.                           
Her explanation for her success in Japan is that the Japanese "love perky music.                           
The poppier the music, the better."                                                                         
                                                                                                           
After she joined the cast of Party of Five in 1995, she signed to Atlantic                                 
Records, who rushed her first single and second album Let's Go Bang out in                                 
October. Neither the single nor the album generated much public interest.                                   
                                                                                                           
Juggling her music career with her acting career, she recorded her follow-up in                             
1996. The first single, "No Ordinary Love" failed to chart and led to the album                             
doing the same. Atlantic dropped Hewitt, who didn't return to the music scene                               
for 3 years.                                                                                               
                                                                                                           
In 1999, she recorded the single "How Do I Deal" for the I Still Know What You                             
Did Last Summer Soundtrack. The song became Hewitt's first charting single by                               
climbing to #59 on the Hot 100 and #36 on the Top 40 Mainstream. It also reached                           
#8 in Australia.                                                                                           
                                                                                                           
In 2002, Hewitt signed to Jive Records and recorded her fourth album with singer/songwriter/producer       
Meredith Brooks. The first single, "BareNaked", became her biggest radio hit to                             
date when it peaked at #24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, #31 on the Adult                           
Top 40 and #25 on the Top 40 Mainstream. It also climbed to #6 in Australia. The                           
success of the single propelled her album of the same name to peak at #37 on the                           
Billboard 200 and #31 in Australia. However, it only remained on the chart for 3                           
weeks. The second single, "Can I Go Now", failed to chart in the US, while only                             
managing to peak at #12 in Australia.                                                                       
                                                                                                           
Since 2003, Hewitt hasn't actively done anything in the music industry, but a                               
compilation called Cool with You: The Platinum Collection was released in Asia.