Queen Latifah

Biography

Date of Birth 18 March 1970, Newark, New Jersey, USA Birth Name Dana Elaine Owens Height 5' 10" (1.78 m) Queen Latifah is a Grammy-winning American rapper/singer and Academy Award-nominated actress. Early Life Queen Latifah was born in Orange New Jersey, to Lancelot Owens, a police officer, and Rita Owens, a high-school art teacher. They divorced when in 1978. Her stage name, Latifah, translated as "nice" from the Arabic language, was given to her when she was eight years old by her Muslim cousin. While in high school, she was a power forward on her basketball team. 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. 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". Also in early 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie the 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. Currently, she is filming The Perfect Christmas penned by Marc Calixte and Lance Rivera in Warren, NJ, alongside co-stars Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Charles Q. Murphy, Jill Marie Jones, and Faizon Love.