"She has always been an actress," says mom Pat Garner (with Jennifer and her dad, Bill, at the 2003 Emmys). Growing up, Garner studied ballet from age 3, took piano and violin lessons, and was active in community theater. "Musicals were just what I did," she says of being "beyond involved" as a kid. "You would have thought that I was trying to be a professional in Charleston, W. Va., but I just loved it so much."