Biography - Jada Pinkett Smith

One of the most beautiful women on earth and one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, Jada Pinkett Smith has impressed in a slew of terrific films and is firmly in the public eye due to her high-profile marriage to superstar Will Smith. Pinkett is currently on-screen in “Reign Over Me” alongside Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Donald Sutherland, and Liv Tyler.

Born on September 18, 1971 in Baltimore, Pinkett was educated in theatre at the Baltimore School for the Arts, a public high school in the Baltimore area. It was there that she met classmate Tupac Shakur, who was a lifelong friend until his tragic death in 1996. Pinkett continued her studies at the North Carolina School for the Arts, but dropped out after a year to focus on an acting career, and found her breakthrough in the popular series “A Different World” after walk-on parts in the Johnny Depp series “21 Jump Street” and “True Colors.” She also appeared in 1993’s hit urban film “Menace II Society.” Eye-candy roles in “A Low Down Dirty Shame” and “Demon Knight” came next, but Pinkett finally found a wide audience in the 1996 Eddie Murphy smash “The Nutty Professor,” which showcased her considerable comic ability.

Now a household name, Pinkett followed “The Nutty Professor” with roles in “Set It Off” with Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise, Wes Craven’s horror sequel “Scream 2,” and the Vince Vaughn-Anne Heche thriller dud “Return to Paradise.” Pinkett gave a terrific performance in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” in 2000, and wowed audiences again with her appearance in Michael Mann’s “Ali,” which starred her husband in the title role. Pinkett has since donned tight leather for the Wachowski Brothers in the final two “Matrix” films, and reunited with Mann for the terrific thriller “Collateral” in 2004, which saw her bump heads with Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise. Pinkett also performs extensively with her band Wicked Wisdom, an alt-metal group that opened for part of Britney Spears’s ‘Onyx Hotel’ tour.

Jada and Will Smith married on December 31, 1997, and the made-on-Planet-Celebrity super-couple have been happily married ever since. They have two children together – one of whom, Jaden, co-starred with his father in the 2006 surprise blockbuster “The Pursuit of Happyness.”