Jenna Lee Dewan-Tatum better known by her birth name Jenna Dewan, is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress, dancer, and former model.

Early life

Dewan was born in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

, the daughter of Nancy Lee (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Bursch) and Darryll Dewan, who was a running back

Running back

A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...

 on the 1972 Notre Dame Football team

Football team

A football team is the collective name given to a group of players selected together in the various team sports known as football.Such teams could be selected to play in an against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-star team or even selected as a...

. Dewan is of half Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 ancestry. Her parents divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

d when Dewan was young and her mother remarried, to Claude Brooks Smith. During high school at Grapevine High School

Grapevine High School

Grapevine High School is a public secondary school at 3223 Mustang Drive in Grapevine, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District.GHS is located in the northeast region of Tarrant County....

 in Grapevine

Grapevine, Texas

Grapevine is a city in northeast Tarrant County, Texas, United States located within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census the city population was 46,334. The city's moniker is derived from the native grapes prevalent in the area. In recent years several wineries have...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Jenna was a varsity cheerleader and won many dance competition awards. She graduated in 1999 and was voted prom

Prom

In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...

 queen her senior year. She went to USC

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 and was a member of the California Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi (ΠΒΦ)

Pi Beta Phi

Pi Beta Phi is an international fraternity for women founded as I.C. Sorosis on April 28, 1867, at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Its headquarters are located in Town and Country, Missouri, and there are 134 active chapters and over 330 alumnae organizations across the United States and...

.

Dance career

Prior to starring in film, she was a dancer, working for various famous performers such as Clinton Troupe, 'N Sync

'N Sync

N Sync was an American boy band formed in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich, *NSYNC consisted of JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick...

, Sean Combs

Sean Combs

Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...

, Toni Braxton

Toni Braxton

Toni Michelle Braxton is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide...

, Celine Dion

Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

, Pink

Pink (singer)

Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....

, Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott

Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott , is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actressA five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have five albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one...

, Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin

Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...

, Billy Crawford

Billy Crawford

Billy Joe Crawford is a Filipino-American recording artist, singer-songwriter and philanthropist.Crawford is a Bilingual Filipino Singer. His second language is English and he is conversational in French. Crawford not only lived in New York City, USA, but also in Paris for five years and for one...

, and tour with Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...

 on her All for You Tour

All for You Tour

The All for You Tour was a worldwide concert tour in 2001 by American pop/R&B singer Janet Jackson in support of her multi-platinum album All for You...

 and appeared in music videos accompanying the album All For You. Jenna also featured in Christina Aguilera's

Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

 music video for the single "Not Myself Tonight

Not Myself Tonight

"Not Myself Tonight" is a song recorded by American pop singer Christina Aguilera. The song was written by Jamal Jones, Ester Dean, Jason Perry, and Greg Curtis, and produced by Polow da Don for Aguilera's sixth studio album, Bionic. The song was released on April 13, 2010 as the lead single from...

" She was also for a short while in a pop group named "A-Teens".

Acting career

Jenna has had small roles in films such as The Hot Chick

The Hot Chick

The Hot Chick is a 2002 American comedy film about a teenage girl whose body is magically swapped with that of a 30-year-old criminal. It was directed by Tom Brady and produced by Guy Riedel for Happy Madison and Touchstone Pictures, from a screenplay by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider...

, The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2 is the 2006 sequel to the 2004 American horror film remake The Grudge. The Grudge 2 is the second film in Sony's The Grudge series and is directed by Takashi Shimizu and written by Stephen Susco. The film is produced by Sam Raimi and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amber Tamblyn, Arielle...

, Dark Shadows, Waterborne

Waterborne

Waterborne is a 2005 independent film by Indian American film maker Ben Rekhi about the fates of three different groups of people after a terrorist attack pollutes the water supply of Los Angeles, resulting in a severe water shortage. It stars Christopher Masterson, Ajay Naidu, Jake Muxworthy, Jon...

as well as guest appearances in television series such as Quintuplets

Quintuplets

Quintuplets is an American sitcom that aired twenty-two episodes on FOX from June 16, 2004 through January 12, 2005. The program starred Andy Richter and Rebecca Creskoff as parents of a family of quintuplets and their various adventures in parenthood....

, The Young and The Restless

The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...

and Joey

Joey

- Animals :* Joey , an infant marsupial* Joey, a Blue-fronted Amazon parrot who was one of the Blue Peter pets-People with the given name Joey:* Joey Benjamin , English cricketer* Joey Bishop , entertainer...

.

She starred in the independent 2005 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 Tamara

Tamara

Tamara may refer to:People:* Tamara * Saint Tamar of Georgia, Queen of Georgia Films and stage plays:* Tamara , an American horror film* Tamara , a Hungarian film...

from the producers of Final Destination

Final Destination

Final Destination is a 2000 supernatural slasher film written and directed by James Wong. The film was co-written by Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick, both of them having previously worked with Wong in the TV series The X-Files. The film stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith and Tony Todd...

. The film failed to have box office success only earning worldwide a total of $206,871. The film was released to negative reviews with a rating of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

Throughout 2006, she appeared in her most known role to date as Nora Clark in Step Up. A box office success earning worldwide a total of $119,193,847 but received mixed to negative reviews. She appeared in another Dance film Take The Lead

Take the Lead

Take the Lead is a movie starring Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Alfre Woodard, Dante Basco, Marcus T. Paulk, Jenna Dewan, Lauren Collins and also features former America's Next Top Model contestant, Yaya DaCosta. The film was released in mainstream cinema on April 7, 2006...

as Sasha in a supporting role. The film received extremely negative reviews however had a strong success ranking of third at the box office.

In 2008, she appeared as the lead role of Amber in the Straight to DVD Romance/Action film Love Lies Bleeding. She appeared in the Lifetime Made For Television movie Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal is a Lifetime Television drama film starring Tatum O'Neal and directed by Tom McLoughlin. The film premiered on August 2, 2008. It is based on a true story, which occurred at McKinney North High School in McKinney, Texas in 2006...

as Emma Carr which premiered August 2, 2008.

Throughout 2009 she appeared in Falling Awake and Magdalena. She starred alongside Rob Schneider

Rob Schneider

Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...

 in the comedy film American Virgin

American Virgin

American Virgin may refer to:*American Virgin , a 2000 film starring Mena Suvari*American Virgin , a 2009 comedy film starring Rob Schneider...

which follows a night of debauchery threatening a sexually abstinent student's college standing and The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

The Six Wives of Henry LeFay

The Six Wives of Henry Lefay is a 2009 American comedy film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Tim Allen. A grieving daughter tries to arrange her father's funeral, while putting up with all of his ex-wives...

alongside Elisha Cuthbert

Elisha Cuthbert

Elisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...

. In January 2010 she also appeared in The Jerk Theory with her Step Up co-star Josh Henderson

Josh Henderson

Joshua Baret "Josh" Henderson is an American actor and singer. He rose to fame as one of the male members of Scene 23, a pop singing group that were selected as the winners of The WB's singing competition Popstars 2. After the group disbanded, he began focusing on an acting career...

.

She has also signed on to play the character of Kendra Wilson in a two-episode arc in the 2009 Melrose Place

Melrose Place (2009 TV series)

Melrose Place is an American television series broadcast on The CW Television Network from September 8, 2009 to April 13, 2010. The fifth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise, it is an updated version of the 1990s Fox prime time drama of the same name, featuring a group of young adults...

reboot on The CW.

Along with friends Reid Carolin

Reid Carolin

Gordon Reid Carolin is an American film producer, director and screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of .He most recently wrote and produced the film, Magic Mike, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Reid is also a producer of Jamie Linden's upcoming high-school reunion film, Ten Year...

, Adam Martingano, Brett Rodriguez and husband Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum

Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

, Dewan started a production company called 33andOut Productions Their first production is a documentary called Earth Made of Glass that follows the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and genocide survivor Jean-Pierre Sagahutu. The film was selected to premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Personal life

In 2006, Dewan met Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum

Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

 on the set of Step Up

Step Up (film)

Step Up is a 2006 American dance/romance film directed by Anne Fletcher starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows the tale of the disadvantaged Tyler Gage and the privileged modern dancer Nora Clark , who find themselves paired up in a showcase that...

. They began dating shortly after filming had finished. The couple got engaged in early September 2008 in Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. On July 11, 2009, they were married on the grounds of Church Estates Vineyards in Malibu, California.

Films

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|| 2002
| The Hot Chick

The Hot Chick

The Hot Chick is a 2002 American comedy film about a teenage girl whose body is magically swapped with that of a 30-year-old criminal. It was directed by Tom Brady and produced by Guy Riedel for Happy Madison and Touchstone Pictures, from a screenplay by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider...

| Bianca Salsa Girl
| Jenna role as a dancer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2005
| Waterborne

Waterborne

Waterborne is a 2005 independent film by Indian American film maker Ben Rekhi about the fates of three different groups of people after a terrorist attack pollutes the water supply of Los Angeles, resulting in a severe water shortage. It stars Christopher Masterson, Ajay Naidu, Jake Muxworthy, Jon...

| Devi
| Straight-to-DVD
|-
| Tamara

Tamara (2005 film)

Tamara is a 2005 horror film, with resemblances to the Stephen King novel Carrie.It was released only in select theatres by City Lights Pictures, a Manhattan-based production company.-Plot:...

| Tamara Riley
| Worldwide Gross: $206,871
|-
| rowspan=3 | 2006
| Take the Lead

Take the Lead

Take the Lead is a movie starring Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Alfre Woodard, Dante Basco, Marcus T. Paulk, Jenna Dewan, Lauren Collins and also features former America's Next Top Model contestant, Yaya DaCosta. The film was released in mainstream cinema on April 7, 2006...

| Sasha
| Worldwide Gross: $34,742,066
|-
| Step Up

Step Up (film)

Step Up is a 2006 American dance/romance film directed by Anne Fletcher starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows the tale of the disadvantaged Tyler Gage and the privileged modern dancer Nora Clark , who find themselves paired up in a showcase that...

| Nora Clark
| Won – Teen Choice Award Choice Movie: Dance
|-
| The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2 is the 2006 sequel to the 2004 American horror film remake The Grudge. The Grudge 2 is the second film in Sony's The Grudge series and is directed by Takashi Shimizu and written by Stephen Susco. The film is produced by Sam Raimi and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amber Tamblyn, Arielle...

| Sally
| Worldwide Gross: $70,711,175
|-
|| 2008
| Love Lies Bleeding
| Amber
| rowspan="5" | Straight-to-DVD
|-
| rowspan="4" | 2009
| Falling Awake
| Alessandra
|-
| American Virgin
| Priscilla
|-
| The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

The Six Wives of Henry LeFay

The Six Wives of Henry Lefay is a 2009 American comedy film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Tim Allen. A grieving daughter tries to arrange her father's funeral, while putting up with all of his ex-wives...

| Sarah Jane
|-
| The Jerk Theory
| Molly
|-
| rowspan=2| 2010
|| The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American conspiracy
| Katherine Prescott
| Completed
|-
| Slightly Single in L.A.

Slightly Single in L.A.

Slightly Single in L.A. is an upcoming romantic comedy film, written and directed by Christie Will and starring Lacey Chabert, Kip Pardue, Haylie Duff, Carly Schroeder, Jenna Dewan, Brian Drolet and Jonathan Bennett. The movie is currently finished....

| Hallie
| rowspan="3"| Post-production
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2011
| Balls to the Wall
| Rachel Matthews
|-
| Setup

Setup (film)

Set Up is a heist film directed by Mike Cunther and written by Gunther and Mike Behrman. It stars Bruce Willis, Ryan Phillippe, and 50 Cent.It was released straight to DVD and Blu Ray on 20 September 2011 in the USA.-Plot:...

| Mia
|-
| Ten Year
|
| Post Production
|-

Television Series

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Episode(s)
|-
| rowspan=2|2004
| Quintuplets

Quintuplets

Quintuplets is an American sitcom that aired twenty-two episodes on FOX from June 16, 2004 through January 12, 2005. The program starred Andy Richter and Rebecca Creskoff as parents of a family of quintuplets and their various adventures in parenthood....

| Haley
| Episode 1.03: "Little Man on Campus"
|-
| The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...

| Donna
| "Episode #1.7935"
"Episode #1.7938"
|-
| 2005
| Joey

Joey (TV series)

Joey is an American sitcom, which stars Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani from the sitcom Friends. It premiered on the NBC television network, on September 9, 2004, in the former time slot of its parent series, Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m...

| Tanya
| Episode 1.23: "Joey and the Break-up"
|-
| 2008
| Assorted Nightmares: Janitor
| Jennifer
| Episode #1.1
|-
| 2009
| Melrose Place

Melrose Place (2009 TV series)

Melrose Place is an American television series broadcast on The CW Television Network from September 8, 2009 to April 13, 2010. The fifth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise, it is an updated version of the 1990s Fox prime time drama of the same name, featuring a group of young adults...

| Kendra Wilson
| Episode 1.07: "Windsor"
Episode 1.08: "Gower"
|-
| 2011
| The Playboy Club

The Playboy Club

The Playboy Club is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 19, 2011 to October 3, 2011. Set in 1961, the series centers around the employees of the original Playboy Club operating in Chicago....

| Bunny Janie
|
|-

Television Movies

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2004
| Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...

| Sophia
| Warner Bros. Television
|-
| 2008
| Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal is a Lifetime Television drama film starring Tatum O'Neal and directed by Tom McLoughlin. The film premiered on August 2, 2008. It is based on a true story, which occurred at McKinney North High School in McKinney, Texas in 2006...

| Emma Carr
| Lifetime TV
|}

External links

• "Talking Tamara with Jenna Dewan" at UGO.com