Dana Elaine "Queen Latifah"
Owens (born March 18, 1970) is an American Grammy
Award-winning rap artist and singer, and an Academy
Award-nominated actress.
Biography
Early life
Latifah was born in Newark, New Jersey to
African-American parents Lancelot Owens (a police
officer) and Rita (a high-school art teacher); they
divorced when she was eight years old. After singing
in the choir of her local Baptist church,[1] she performed
the number "Home" from the musical, The
Wiz, in a high school play. Her stage name, Latifah(?????),
means "delicate" and "sensitive"
in Arabic. It was given to her when she was eight
by her cousin. While in high school, she was a power
forward on her basketball team. Her father also gave
her lessons in karate and firearms use.
Music career
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. They released
Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen, in (1989);
at the time, she was 18. This 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. After releasing four rap albums (the
fourth being Order in the Court, released in 1998),
she released a soul/jazz standards album in 2004 called
The Dana Owens Album.
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 as a supporting
actress in movies like House Party 2 (1991), Juice
and Set It Off (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 vehicle Living Out Loud (1998).
Although she had already received some critical acclaim,
she gained mainstream success after being cast over
Kathy Bates 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, and Beauty Shop.
Her latest film, released in early
2006, is a romantic comedy/drama entitled Last Holiday.
Latifah has received some notably positive reviews
for the role, including a statement by film critic
Richard Roeper that "this is the Queen Latifah
performance I've been waiting for ever since she broke
into movies".[2] Also in early 2006, Latifah
voiced a 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, the action film Bad Girls, which also
stars Jada Pinkett Smith, and a remake of Hairspray,
playing Motormouth Maybelle opposite John Travolta;
filming on Hairspray will begin in the fall of 2006,
for a summer 2007 release
Other work
Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for Cover Girl
cosmetics; 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.
On January 4, 2006, Latifah received
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is the first
hip hop artist to be given this honor.
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 due to possession of a small amount of marijuana
and a 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 lead to a bout of depression
and drug abuse from which she later recovered.
Because of her portrayal of a lesbian
in Set It Off and her avoidance of discussing her
romantic life, tabloid media sometimes speculate that
she is a lesbian. Latifahresponded 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."
In early 2003, Latifah had breast
reduction surgery to relieve back pain. She also works
out with a trainer and kickboxes.[4] In March 2006,
she announced that she is in the early stages of adopting
a child, and will possibly have a baby by the beginning
of 2007
Selected filmography
2007 Hairspray Motormouth Maybelle
2006 Bad Girls
2006 Stranger Than Fiction Penny Escher
2006 Ice Age: The Meltdown Ellie the wooly mammoth
2006 Last Holiday Georgia Byrd
2005 Beauty Shop Gina Norris (also producer)
2004 Taxi Belle
2004 The Cookout Security Guard (also producer)
2004 Barbershop 2: Back in Business Gina
2003 Scary Movie 3 Aunt Shaneequa
2003 Bringing Down the House Charlene Morton (also
producer)
2002 Chicago Matron "Mama" Morton (the security
guard)
1998 Living Out Loud Liz Bailey
1996 Set It Off Cleopatra 'Cleo' Sims
1992 Juice Ruffhouse M.C.
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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