Everything about Queen Latifah totally explained
Dana Elaine Owens (born
March 18,
1970), better known by her
stage name Queen Latifah, is an award-winning
American rapper,
singer and
actress. Latifah's work in music, film and television has earned her a
Golden Globe award, three
Screen Actors Guild Awards, two
Image Awards, a
Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an
Emmy Award nomination and an
Academy Award nomination.
Early life
Latifah was born in
Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Rita, a schoolteacher who worked at
Irvington High School, and Lancelot Owens, a policeman. Her parents divorced when Latifah was ten. Her stage name,
Latifah (لطيفة), meaning "kind" in
Arabic, was given to her when she was eight by her cousin. and, while in high school, was a power forward on her basketball team.
Recording and acting career
Recording artist
Latifah started her career
beatboxing for the rap group
Ladies Fresh. It was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" category.
Film and television
From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on
Living Single, a
FOX sitcom; Also in 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly
mammoth, in the animated film, (her first voice appearance in an animated film), and also appeared in the drama
Stranger Than Fiction.
She has starred in two movie remakes (
Taxi and
Last Holiday), four sequels (
House Party 2,
Scary Movie 3, and ), one spinoff (
Beauty Shop), one movie based on a book (
The Bone Collector), and two screen adaptations of musicals (
Chicago and
Hairspray). Addressing the apparent disparity between rap music and movie musicals, Queen admits that she grew up watching musicals and singing in that style. "What the hell was I going to do," she revealed to CraveOnline, "it wasn't like I was going to perform much of that ... but now it's all paying off because here come the musicals again and I get a chance to have some fun with a lot of these songs."
The summer of 2007 brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit
Hairspray, in which she acted, sang, and danced. The film rated highly with critics. It starred, among others,
John Travolta and
Christopher Walken. Also in 2007, she portrayed an
HIV-positive woman in the film,
Life Support, a role for which she garnered her first
Golden Globe Award,
Screen Actors Guild Award and an
Emmy nomination.
Latifah produced the 2007 film
The Perfect Holiday penned by Marc Calixte and Lance Rivera in
Westfield, NJ. In addition to producing the film, Latifah starred alongside
Terrence Howard,
Morris Chestnut,
Gabrielle Union,
Charles Q. Murphy,
Jill Marie Jones, and
Faizon Love.
In 2008, Latifah appeared in the crime comedy
Mad Money opposite
Academy Award-winner
Diane Keaton as well as
Katie Holmes and
Ted Danson.
Products and endorsements
Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for
Cover Girl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear,
Pizza Hut and
Jenny Craig. She has developed her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the
Covergirl Queen Collection
and has starred in several commercials for the line, as well as a commercial with fellow spokeswoman and singer
Faith Hill.
Personal life
Raised in
East Orange, New Jersey, she's been a resident of
Rumson, New Jersey. Latifah's older brother Lancelot Jr. was killed in
1992 in an accident involving a motorcycle that Latifah had recently bought him.
In early 2003, Latifah had
breast reduction surgery to relieve back pain. She also works out with a trainer and
kickboxes.
Awards
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
2002:
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Queen Latifah'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://queen_latifah.totallyexplained.com">Queen Latifah Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
