Sydney Penny was born on August 7, 1971 in Nashville, Tennessee to a comedian and opera trained singer. Coming from a family of performers, she was at a very young age when she started her career in performing. From time to time she was even allowed to go upstage and perform with her parents. Penny grew up in Los Angeles, California and was exposed to different kinds of activities like horse back riding, acting, ballet, jazz, tap, gymnastics, acrobatics and ice skating. Her commercials started when she was six and by age ten she was acting in films. A string of films followed including one called La Passion de Bernadette, a movie that required her to learn French, then becoming fluent in the language. By the time she was seventeen, she was inspired by Sophia Loren whom she had worked with at the time on a movie called Running Away. She was so awed by Sophia's professionalism and talent that it inspired her to further pursue her acting career. Penny's appearances on television include Santa Barbara, All My Children and
The Bold and the Beautiful .
Julia Santos Keefer is played by Sydney Penny in the soap opera All My Children. Julia is the daughter of Hector and Isabelle Santos. She has three sisters and one brother. Julia was raped by Louie Greco and became pregnant, resorting to an abortion despite considerable opposition from her devout Roman Catholic Mexican-American family. Another scandal that shook her family was when she became involved with Noah Keefer, an African-American man with a rough past. She got married to him and she was placed in a witness protection program in 1996. In 2005, after Noah was murdered, she avenged her husband's death by killing Garret Williams in self-defense. Since then she started having feelings for Jamie Martin.