Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, songwriter, and actress. She has received various accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two NAACP Image Awards, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2006, she became the first hip hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At age 19, Latifah released her debut album All Hail the Queen (1989), featuring the hit single "Ladies First". Her second album Nature of a Sista' (1991), was produced by Tommy Boy Records. Her third album, Black Reign (1993), became the first album by a solo female rapper to receive a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and spawned the single "U.N.I.T.Y.", which was influential in raising awareness of violence against women and the objectification of Black female sexuality. The track reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won a Grammy Award. Her fourth album Order in the Court (1998), was released with Motown Records. She has since released the albums The Dana Owens Album (2004), Trav'lin' Light (2007), and Persona (2009).

Latifah starred as Khadijah James on the Fox sitcom Living Single from 1993 to 1998 and landed a leading role in the action film Set It Off (1996). She created the daytime talk show The Queen Latifah Show, which ran from 1999 to 2001, and again from 2013 to 2015, in syndication. Her portrayal of Matron "Mama" Morton in the musical film Chicago (2002) received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has also starred or co-starred in the films Bringing Down the House (2003), Taxi (2004), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2005), Beauty Shop (2005), Last Holiday (2006), Hairspray (2007), Joyful Noise (2012), 22 Jump Street (2014), and Girls Trip (2017); and provided voice work in the Ice Age film series since 2006.

Latifah received critical acclaim for her portrayal of blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO film Bessie (2015), which she co-produced, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. From 2016 to 2019, she starred as Carlotta Brown in the musical drama series Star. In 2020, she portrayed Hattie McDaniel in the miniseries Hollywood. She portrayed the lead role on CBS's revival of the action drama The Equalizer, which aired five seasons from 2021 through 2025.

Dana Elaine Owens was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 18, 1970, and lived primarily in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita Lamae (née Bray; d. 2018), a teacher at Irvington High School (Dana's alma mater), and Lancelot Amos Owens, a police officer. Her parents divorced when she was ten.

She was raised in the Baptist faith. She attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey and Essex Catholic Girls' High School in Irvington but graduated from Irvington High School. After high school, she attended classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

She found her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laṭīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, in a book of Arabic names when she was eight. Always tall, the 5-foot-10-inch (1.78 m) Dana was a power forward on her high school basketball team. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a grammar school play.

She began beat boxing for the hip-hop group Ladies Fresh and was an original member of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of MCs grouped around producer DJ King Gemini. DJ King Gemini made a demo recording of Queen Latifah's rap song Princess of the Posse, which he gave to Fab 5 Freddy, the host of Yo! MTV Raps. The song got the attention of Tommy Boy Music employee Dante Ross, who signed Latifah and in 1989 released her first single, "Wrath of My Madness". More recent artists, like Ice Cube and Lil' Kim, would go on to sample Latifah's track in their songs "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo" and "Wrath of Kim's Madness" respectively in later years. Latifah has a two-octave vocal range. She is considered a contralto, with the ability to both rap and sing.