"Baby Jessie," as her family calls her, was the only child of special-ed teacher Kate Capshaw and principal Bob Capshaw. When she was 2, the family moved to New York so Kate could pursue modeling and acting. After her parents divorced in 1979, Jessica went to Los Angeles with her mother. Kate Capshaw married Steven Spielberg in 1991, and Jessica's extended family now includes one step-brother and seven half-siblings.

Current residence: Los Angeles, where she moved after earning an English degree from Brown University in 1998.

The single Capshaw now shares a home with her 2-year old chocolate Labrador, Lucy.

Climbing the ladder: An actor since performing in high school plays, Jessica, who stars in the horror film Valentine, says she didn't profit from nepotism. While she earned her first film credit interning as a gopher on Spielberg's epic Schindler's List, she landed an agent and a manager on her own through a connection made while studying at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1998. After a handful of bit parts in film and television, Jessica landed a role on the short-lived 1999 sitcom Odd Man Out. "With Steven and my mom being who they are, I tend to think, What could I do that can even compare or make them go 'Wow'?"

Starstruck: Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford have been known to drop by her famly's home, but Capshaw swears she's not jaded: "I saw Faith Hill right before the holidays in a department store. I literally checked her out. I wanted to know what she was wearing top to bottom, what perfume she was trying on. She made me giddy."

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