Christina Milian (born Christine Flores on September 26, 1981) is an American actress, and Grammy Award-nominated R&B and pop singer. She has released three studio albums and one compilation album. She also has had four solo top five singles (and also a top ten featuring credit single) in the UK as well as hits in the rest of Europe and North America. As an actress, Milian appeared in the 2003 film Love Don't Cost a Thing opposite Nick Cannon. She also starred as singer Linda Moon in Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty, and appeared in the 2006 horror film Pulse. Her public life took an interesting turn with the media constantly linking her to Nick Cannon, Eric West, and producer Dre.

 Early life

Milian was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Cuban parents, Don and Carmen (who is Afro-Cuban) and has two younger sisters, Dannielle and Elizabeth. Her family moved to Waldorf, Maryland soon after her birth and she set her heart on an entertainment career at the age of four. Milian did commercials (Wendy's, Honeycombs) and played the lead role in the musical Annie before moving to Los Angeles at 13 to pursue an acting career; Her father didn't move with the rest her family and divorced her mother soon after. Her mother is now her manager. Milian speaks English and Spanish.

 Acting career

Milian's first significant role was as a reporter on the Disney Channel's Movie Surfers show in 1998 billed as Tina Flores. While in this role, she also appeared in minor roles in the movies A Bug's Life and American Pie and in guest appearances on the television series Charmed, Clueless, Get Real, The Amanda Show, and The Steve Harvey Show.

In 2002, Milian was appointed to host of the television show Wannabes on MTV. She met director Joseph Kahn on an episode of Wannabes who suggested she audition for a lead role in the film Torque opposite Ice Cube. Her audition was successful, which lead to a lead role in Love Don't Cost a Thing in 2003. In 2005, she had roles in the films Man of the House opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Be Cool with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. She also appeared in the horror film Pulse, released in August of 2006, starring alongside Veronica Mars actress Kristen Bell. In 2006, Milian was named #10 in Maxim's Hot 100.

In 2006, Milian appeared in the music video for Jessica Simpson's single "A Public Affair," alongside Christina Applegate, Eva Longoria, Maria Menounos, Ryan Seacrest and Andy Dick.

 Recording career

 2000—2002: Music beginnings

In 2000, Milian made her first official musical appearance on Ja Rule's sophomore studio album Rule 3:36, performing guest vocals on his song "Between Me and You". Released as the album's lead single in 2001, the track managed to peak at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in the top 30 of the UK singles chart, building Milian's reputation as a singer. In the meantime Milian co-wrote and provided extensive backing vocals for the track "Play" for Jennifer Lopez's 2001 album J. Lo which became another success. Milian would later pass down the song to Lopez because of already having a club song with "AM to PM" as promotion. She also went on to co-write "Same Ol' Same Ol", the first single from girl group PYT's debut album Down With Me.

In 2001, Milian eventually released her first solo single, "AM To PM", off her self-titled debut album. The song became a worldwide hit reaching the top 5 in the UK and Denmark, top 10 in the Netherlands, and top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and in Australia. The success of "AM To PM" sparked the international release of the Christina Milian album, although not in the United States. The second single "When You Look At Me" was another international hit reaching the top 5 in the UK, Netherlands, and Ireland and making the top 40 in Denmark, Germany, Australia, and France. Although a music video for the album's third single "Get Away" (another collaboration with Ja Rule) was filmed in Paris, the single wasn't released officially.

Afterwards Milian also was featured on the track "It's All Gravy", a duet with British singer Romeo of the garage group So Solid Crew. While the song was another UK top ten hit single in 2002, Milian provided the theme song for the Disney series Kim Possible, "Call Me Beep Me" later that year.

 2003—2005: New image and popularity

In 2003, Milian started recording songs with Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Bloodshy & Avant and Cory Rooney for her first U.S. release, It's About Time (whose title is a direct reference to how long it had taken for one of her albums to be released domestically). The album was released to positive reviews on July 13, 2004, but failed to receive immense commercial success when it debuted at #21 in the UK and #14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling over 36,000 copies in the first week only. While It's about Time ended up with lackluster sales of 385,000 copies in the United States, it gained prominence when it received a Grammy nomination for "Best Contemporary R&B Album" in 2005.

The album's first single, "Dip It Low" (written by singer Teedra Moses and Black Eyed Peas producer Poli Paul) however, became Milian's biggest hit to date, when it peaked at #1 on a world composite dance chart (compiled on data from the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Australia), simultaneously reaching #2 in the UK, #5 in the U.S., #7 in New Zealand and the top 20 in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands. The album's second and final single, "Whatever U Want" (featuring Joe Budden) failed to reprise the success of the lead single, but again reached the top 10 in the UK as well as charting on the Billboard Hot 100.

 2006—present: Career development

Christina Milian's third studio album So Amazin' was released on May 16, 2006. While Milian worked with Cool & Dre on the majority of the production of the album, the project was finished with additional help from Rich Harrison and executice producers Jay-Z and LA Reid. The record's first single "Say I" featured rapper Young Jeezy and was released in March 2006 as a single and video. The song made it to number 1 on iTunes UK Music Store and was number 1 on AOL music, but altogether saw moderate success only with peak positions on #21 in the United States, #4 in the UK and #45 in Australia.

While So Amazin' failed to reach the top 10 when it debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the album saw minor international success only, peaking at #65 in the UK inter alia. With "Gonna Tell Everybody" a second single from the album was chosen, but Island Def Jam neither agreed to film a music video nor booked promotional appearances for Milian to promote the song. In June 2006, instead, Milian's representative confirmed that she had left the Island Def Jam record label due to "creative differences" - though disappointing album sales were believed to be a factor, since the album sold less then 500,000 worldwide (over 100,000 in United States).

On November 22, Milian released her first compilation album, titled The Best of Christina Milian. The album was released under the Universal International label. Christina also stated on her MySpace blog, that she will be starting to record her new album at the beginning 2007.

 Personal life

In the summer of 2005, Milian broke up with actor Nick Cannon after being together for nearly two and a half years. In an interview with Angie Martinez, she spoke about how she found out about Cannon cheating on her. Apparently while she was away filming Pulse in Romania, she attempted to log in to his T-Mobile account by entering in random passwords. After lucking out with one of the passwords, she was able to read all of the messages he sent out and received to and from other women. When she returned to the states, she decided to play it cool before hitting him with the news that she knew he was cheating. A spokeswoman for Cannon told the New York Daily News, "The whole time they were filming, Nick had a girlfriend, and Christina didn't care," says a source. "He ended that relationship out of respect to his girlfriend, and he hooked up with Christina. But then he found out she'd slept with a friend of his, so they decided to just have fun together." But then "Christina started getting really serious. She broke into his Sidekick and found E-mails from other girls." also going on to say "If you're in a relationship with a new guy, why are you talking about Nick?, because her boyfriend knows it's good PR for her."

Weeks after their break up, a rumored relationship with Eric West created more headlines than her breakup with Cannon. Milian was spotted with the actor and singer during New York's Olympus Fashion Week leading to many claims that the two are dating. Pictures and footage taken in August 2005 of Milian and West went on to fuel rumours of the two being involved with each other. Eric said on American radio station Y100 that the two are just friends. Much like her relationship with Eric West, Milian also denied dating rapper/producer Dre, insisting she is single, but later confirmed they are dating. .

Recently AOL News reported West and Milian were spotted together once again at a New York Hotel, saying Singer-actress Christina Milian spotted looking nervous as she left the Hotel Gansevoort in New York's Soho district as she ran into actor Eric West. The two made headlines when Milian posted a MySpace blog saying she "[has] no idea who Eric West is" despite having co-hosted an event for Elton John's AIDS foundation in August 2005, and being photographed with West at the last New York Fashion Week. My mole said she kept apologizing to West during the chance encounter...

 Philanthropy

On August 6, 2005 Christina co-hosted The Reign at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre in New York City with actor/singer Eric West, the event was designed by a group of inner-city children in 2003 to raise funding and awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention education for men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS, as well as working with the Fresh Air Fund to continue to help other inner-city children and family's. Both Milian and West were awarded Outstanding Achievement Awards for their humanitarian efforts.

Milian has also recently sold personal items on eBay, fueling rumours that she is broke after being dropped by her label. Milian, however, says the proceeds will go to charity.

 Discography

 Albums

• Christina Milian (2001)
• It's About Time (2004)
• So Amazin' (2006)
• Best Of (2006)

 Singles

1. "AM to PM" (2001)
2. "When You Look at Me" (2001)
3. "Get Away" (2002)
4. "Dip It Low" (2004)
5. "Whatever U Want" (2004)
6. "Say I" (2006)
7. "Gonna Tell Everybody" (2006)

 Filmography

 Films

• A Bug's Life (1998) (voice)
• Durango Kids (1999) (Ellie)
• American Pie (1999) (Band Geek)
• The Wood (1999) (Girl at dance)
• Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) (Paris Morgan)
• Torque (2004) (Nina)
• Man of the House (2005) (Anne)
• Be Cool (2005) (Linda Moon)
• Pulse (2006) (Isabel)

 Television

• Sister, Sister (1996)
• Clueless (1999
• Charmed (1999)
• Get Real (1999)

 Awards & nominations