Alyssa Milano is the daughter of Italian-American parents and was born in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Alyssa grew up in a middle-class house located on Staten Island. As luck would have it, one day her babysitter, an aspiring actress, dragged Alyssa along to a an open audtion for the first national tour of Annie. However, it was Alyssa, not her baby sitter, who beat out 1,500 other wannabes actresses to snag a role.

Ao she joined the tour and after 18 months on the road, Alyssa, who had begun to garner a reputation as an energetic and charismatic young actress, left Annie to be featured in off-Broadway productions and television commercials. Then, in 1983 at only age 10, she landed her breakthrough role on the new sitcom “Who’s the Boss?” as Tony Danza’s daughter, Samantha Micelli.