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Jenna Dewan
Dewan at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	Jenna Lee Dewan December 3, 1980 (1980-12-03) (age 29) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, dancer, producer
Years active	2002–present
Spouse(s)	Channing Tatum (2009–present)

Jenna Lee Dewan (born December 3, 1980) is an American actress, producer, dancer, and former model. She is well known for her leading roles in Tamara and Step Up.

Early life

Dewan was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Nancy Lee (née Bursch) and Darryll Dewan, who was starting running back for the 1972 Notre Dame Football team. Dewan is of Lebanese ancestry. Her parents divorced when Dewan was young and her mother remarried, to Claude Brooks Smith. During high school at Grapevine High School in Grapevine, Texas, Jenna was a varsity cheerleader and won many dance competition awards. She graduated in 1999 and was voted prom queen her senior year, as well as receiving the Ms. GHS award, honoring the most well rounded and well thought of male and female student from each class. She went to USC and was a member of the California Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi (ΠΒΦ).

Dance career

Prior to starring in film, she was a dancer, working for various famous performers such as Clinton Troupe, 'N Sync, Sean Combs, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, Pink, Missy Elliott, Ricky Martin, Billy Crawford, and tour with Janet Jackson on her All for You Tour and appeared in music videos accompanying the album All For You. Jenna also featured in Christina Aguilera's music video for the single Not Myself Tonight.

Acting career

Jenna has had small roles in films such as The Hot Chick, The Grudge 2, Dark Shadows, Waterborne as well as guest appearances in television series such as Quintuplets, The Young and The Restless and Joey.

She starred in the independent 2005 horror film Tamara from the producers of Final Destination. 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.

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 $114,194,847 but received mixed to negative reviews. She appeared in another Dance film Take The Lead as Sasha in a supporting role. The film received extremely negative reviews and had little success 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 as Emma Carr which premiered August 2, 2008.

Throughout 2009 she appeared in Falling Awake and Magdalena. She starred alongside Rob Schneider in the comedy film American Virgin which follows a night of debauchery threatening a sexually abstinent student's college standing and The Six Wives of Henry Lefay alongside Elisha Cuthbert. In January 2010 she also appeared in The Jerk Theory with her Step Up co-star Josh Henderson.

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

Along with friends Reid Carolin, Adam Martingano, Brett Rodriguezand husband Channing Tatum, Dewan started a production company called 33andOut ProductionsTheir 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 on the set of Step Up. They began dating shortly after filming had finished. The couple got engaged in early September 2008 in Maui, Hawaii. On Saturday, July 11, 2009, they were married on the grounds of Church Estates Vineyards in Malibu, California.

Filmography

External links

• Jenna Dewan at the Internet Movie Database
• Jenna Dewan at TV.com
• Jenna Dewan at Channing Tatum Unwrapped
• "Talking Tamara with Jenna Dewan" at UGO.com