Born:
March 18, 1970
in
Newark, New Jersey
Best Known For:
Acting and rapping.
Early-life:
Born Dana Elaine Owens in Newark, New Jersey, on March 18, 1970, Queen Latifah is the daughter of a teacher and a police officer. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She found her stage name, Latifah, in an Arabic book of names when she was eight. She played on her high school women's basketball team. In the late 1980s, she began beat boxing and her first single, Wrath of My Madness, was released in 1988.
Career:
Her debut album, All Hail the Queen, was released in 1989 when she was 19. After she issued her fourth hip-hop album, Order in the Court, she began to sing soul music and jazz standards. She released her first soul/jazz album, The Dana Owens Album, in 2004. She returned to hip-hop in 2008 on the record All Hail the Queen II. Away from music, she began acting in the 1990s in American sitcom Living Single. She went on to have supporting roles in the films House Party 2 (1991), Jungle Fever (1991), Juice (1992), Set It Off (1996), Living Out Loud (1998) and The Bone Collector (1999) and had her own talk show from 1999 to 2001. She gained mainstream success in Chicago (2002), Bringing Down the House (2003) and Hairspray (2007). More recently, she returned to TV with The Queen Latifah Show.
Quote:
"I wish every woman would love herself and embrace what she was given naturally."
Trivia:
She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Mama Morton in Chicago.