AllMovie

A former dancer whose sizzling moves alongside such musical icons as P. Diddy, Janet Jackson, and Ricky Martin found her well prepared to step into the spotlight on the big screen, brunette beauty Jenna Dewan lit up the stage with the best of them before making her screen debut as the vengeful Tamara in the supernatural thriller of the same name. It was on the small screen that Dewan would receive her first big break, with appearances in a variety of heavily-circulated music videos preceding a pair of early appearances on the television sitcoms Quintuplets and Joey. Intense in her spirituality despite her witchy onscreen debut, Dewan would get her first taste of success when tabloids began falsely speculating on a romance with fellow dancer Justin Timberlake. Easy to shrug off the rumors and quick to stay on her feet, it was Dewan's impressive footwork that landed her a subsequent role in the 2006 Antonio Banderas musical drama Take the Lead. Though Dewan's screen time may have been a bit brief in that particular effort, a role in the same year's dance romance Step Up found the rising star doing precisely that as she danced away juvenile delinquency alongside She's the Man's Channing Tatum in a role that truly allowed her to cut loose for the cameras. Dewan married her Step Up co-star Tatum in 2009 and the two went on to found their own production company, 33andOut Productions. In addition to roles in several independent films throughout the 2000s, Dewan starred in NBC's much-hyped, but ultimately short-lived, prime time drama The Playboy Club in 2011.