Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah
Image:Latifah.jpeg
Birth name	Dana Elaine Owens
Born	March 18 1970 (age 38) Newark, New Jersey, United States
Official site	www.QueenLatifah.com

Also see the Arab singer Latifa

Queen Latifah (born Dana Elaine Owens, March 18, 1970 in Newark, New Jersey) is a Grammy-winning American rapper/singer and Academy Award-nominated actress.

Biography

Music career

In the early days of her career, she was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of emcees centered around producer DJ Mark the 45 King. She was also a member of the Nation of Gods and Earths, a Faradian Islamic sect. After becoming successful, DJ Mark the 45 King fell into serious drug abuse, and Latifah took over the crew and it became her management company.

Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh. In 1988, local DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah's single "Princess of the Posse" and gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy (who at the time hosted Yo! MTV Raps). Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records. It released Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen, in 1989, at the age of 19. In that same year, she also appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album "1989—The Hustlers Convention (live)" remonstrating between MC Duke and an unknown emcee in the crowd not to battle and to deal with the dis laid down by Duke as a man, she then gets cursed out for not being English. Her debut managed to be both a critical and commercial success and was followed by the albums Nature of a Sista and Black Reign, which contained the hit single, U.N.I.T.Y., for which she won a Grammy. In 1998, after releasing fourth hip-hop album, Order in the Court, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album in 2004.

Acting career

From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a FOX sitcom; she also wrote and performed its theme music. She began her film career in a supporting role in the 1991 films House Party 2, Juice, and Jungle Fever, and Set It Off in 1996.

Latifah first attracted notice for her role as a lesbian in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off, and subsequently had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud (1998) and played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie adaptation of Jeffrey Deavers' The Bone Collector alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Although she had already received some critical acclaim, she gained mainstream success after being cast as Matron "Mama" Morton in the Oscar-winning musical Chicago, the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar. Latifah received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" for her role. In 2003 she co-starred with Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House, which was a big success at the box office. Since then, she has had both leading and supporting roles in a multitude of films that received varied critical and box office receptions, including Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Taxi, Kung Faux, and Beauty Shop.

Her latest film, released in early 2006, is a romantic comedy/drama entitled Last Holiday.^{[citation needed]} Film critic Richard Roeper stated that "this is the Queen Latifah performance I've been waiting for ever since she broke into movies".^[1] Also in early 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie the fat mammoth in the animated film, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (her first voice appearance in an animated film), and will soon appear in the drama Stranger Than Fiction and a remake of Hairspray, playing Motormouth Maybelle opposite John Travolta.^{[citation needed]} Currently, she is filming The Perfect Christmas penned by Marc Calixte and Lance Rivera in Westfield, NJ, alongside co-stars Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Charles Q. Murphy, Jill Marie Jones, and Faizon Love.^[2]

She has starred in 3 movie remakes (Taxi, Last Holiday and Hairspray), 4 Sequels (House Party 2, Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, 1 Spinoff (Beauty Shop), 1 movie based on a book (The Bone Collector) and 1 screen adaptation of a musical (Chicago).

Other work

Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics, has developed her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the Covergirl Queen Collectionand Curvation ladies underwear; she has starred in several commercials for the line, as well as a commercial with fellow spokeswoman and singer Faith Hill. She has also had her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, from 1999 to 2001. She is a spokesperson for Pizza Hut.

Latifah is one of two hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category (Best Supporting Actress, Chicago, 2002). The other is Will Smith (Best Actor, Ali, 2001, and Best Actor, The Pursuit of Happyness, 2007).

She gave a biography of her life when she appeared on a show, featured on Bravo! While on the show she cried while speaking of her late brother, Lancelot.

Personal life

Latifah's older brother Lance was killed in 1992 in a biking accident involving the motorbike that Latifah had just bought him. She still wears the key to the motorbike around her neck and dedicated Black Reign to him. In 1993, she was the victim of a carjacking, in which a friend of hers was shot. In 1996, she was arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana and a fully loaded hand gun; she was fined and sentenced to two years' probation.

In her 1999 autobiography, Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, Latifah discussed how her brother's death led to a bout of depression and drug abuse from which she later recovered.

Queen Latifah also has two other sisters and a brother from her father's post-marriage from Queen Latifah's mother, Rita Owens.

Because of her portrayal of a lesbian in Set It Off and her avoidance of discussing her romantic life, tabloid media have at times speculated on her sexual orientation. Latifah, neither confirming nor denying, responded to these rumors in her autobiography by saying: "It's insulting when someone asks, 'Are you gay?' A woman cannot be strong, outspoken, competent at running her own business, handle herself physically, play a very convincing role in a movie, know what she wants—and go for it—without being gay? Come on."^[3] Queen Latifah is an advocate for same sex marriage and other gay rights issues. In early 2003, Latifah had breast reduction surgery to relieve back pain. She also works out with a trainer and kickboxes.^[4]

Awards

Main article: Queen Latifah awards and nominations

Discography

• All Hail the Queen (1989) (Uncertified: 150,000 copies sold)
• Nature of a Sister' (1991) (uncertified: 90,000 copies sold)
• Black Reign (1993) (Gold) (Gold Certification: 480,000 copies sold)
• Order in the Court (1998) (uncerified: 50,000 copies sold)
• She's the Queen: A Collection of Hits (2002) (uncertified:10,000 copies sold)
• The Dana Owens Album (2004) (Gold) (Gold certification: 510,000 copies sold)

Selected filmography

References

Interviews

• BeliefNet interview (January 12, 2006)
• TheStar Q&A (January 12, 2006)
• BlackNews interview (January 9, 2006)
• MovieHole interview (March 31, 2005)
• CinemaConfidential interview (October 7, 2004)
• BlackFilm interview (March, 2003)

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