1990s.
Queen Latifah
started her career beat boxing for rap group Ladies Fresh and
released her first album, All Hail the Queen at the age
of 18. In
1995, she was the victim of a
carjacking, in which a friend of hers was shot. Her older
brother Lance was killed in an accident on a bike Latifah just
bought him. She still wears the key to the bike around her neck.
Her debut,
All Hail the Queen (1989)
was critically acclaimed as one of the best
hip hop albums of all time. This was followed by Nature
of a Sista, another well-reviewed album. After that,
Queen Latifah began
working on Living Single, a
FOX
sitcom. She was also arrested in possession of a small
amount of
marijuana and a gun. In
1992, her brother died in a car accident and Latifah
released an album dedicated to him, Black Reign, which
was a hit partly because of a hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In
1998 she made an album entitled "Order in the Court".
In 2003 she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance as Matron "Mama" Morton in the movie musical "Chicago".
In 2003, she co-starred with
Steve Martin in the marginally well received comedy Bringing
Down the House (2003), as a woman who is 'mismatched' through a
dating service with Martin's character. She can currently be
seen in Scary Movie 3. Upcoming movie projects for Latifah
include Barbershop 2 (2004) and Taxi (2004), a remake of a
French movie of the same name.
Queen Latifah
stands 5'9". Her name Latifah, meaning "delicate" and
"sensitive" in
Arabic, was given her when she was eight by her cousin.
