Bio
Queen Latifah is a Grammy-winning American rapper/singer and Academy Award-nominated actress best known to television audiences for her lead role as Khadijah James in the sitcom Living Single, appearing in 115 episodes from 1993-1998.
She has also made guest appearances on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Spin City, Kung Faux, Eve, The Fairly OddParents and Independent Lens.
She is also known for a variety of high profile film roles, in movies such as Jungle Fever, Set It Off, Hoodlum, Sphere, The Bone Collector, Brown Sugar, Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Scary Movie 3, Taxi, and Beauty Shop.
She also voiced the role of Ellie in the 2006 animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown, reprising that role for the video game Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, in the same year.
Latifah became the first hip hop artist to be crowned with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 4, 2006. She received rave reviews, an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe nomination and a SAG Award nomination for her portrayal as Mama Morton in Miramax's Chicago.
Following Chicago, Latifah starred in Disney's box office hit Bringing Down the House, on which she also acted as executive producer.
Her film Life Support, in which she was both the star and executive producer, is a true-life drama, in which she plays a mother who overcomes an addiction to crack and becomes a positive role model and an AIDS activist in the black community. It aired on HBO and Latifah received rave reviews for this project.
Latifah was seen in Wayne Wang's The Last Holiday, and starred in MGM's Beauty Shop (a spin-off of the hit Barbershop), which she also produced. She also appeared in Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction, playing opposite Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman and was the voice of the Wooly Mammoth in Ice Age 2.
On September 25th, 2007 Latifah released her album titled Trav'lin Light. Co-produced by three time Grammy winner, Tommy LiPuma, this album was the long awaited follow up to Latifah's highly received and Grammy nominated The Dana Owens Album.
Queen Latifah is also a respected rapper. From her groundbreaking 1989 debut All Hail the Queen, which set the visual and contextual standard for female rappers, to her bold foray into R&B, Latifah continues to define what a woman in the music industry should be.
Then there's Flavor Unit Entertainment, a production company owned and operated by Queen Latifah and her partner, Shakim Compere. They began by executive producing the box office hit Bringing Down the House and then continued with Beauty Shop for MGM.
They also co-produced the action-comedy Bad Girls at Paramount with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Overbrook. They also produced The Cookout with Lion's Gate and The Queen Latifah Show.
Since her screen debut in Spike Lee's 1991 film Jungle Fever, her film career has taken off. She starred in Set it Off, which earned her a nomination for a Spirit Award in the Best Actress category and co-starred with Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito in the critically acclaimed Living Out Loud.
In 1999, she was seen in Universal's The Bone Collector directed by Philip Noyce starring Denzel Washington. She also appeared in Mad Money which she stars alongside Diane Keaton and Katie Holmes.
In addition to music, film and television, Queen Latifah has also written a book on self-esteem entitled Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman.
Every year, Queen Latifah serves as co-chairman for the Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation, Inc. Established by her mother, Rita Owens, to perpetuate the memory of a loving son and brother, the foundations provides scholarships to students who excel scholastically, but are limited in financial resources.
In 2013 she began hosting her own talk show called The Queen Latifah Show, having previously hosted a show with the same name in 1999.