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Also see the Arab singer Latifa more...

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Queen Latifah (born Dana Elaine Owens on March 18, 1970) is a Grammy-winning American rapper/singer and Academy Award-nominated actress.

Biography

Early life

Queen Latifah was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Lancelot Owens, a police officer, and Rita Owens, a high-school art teacher. They divorced when Latifah was eight years old. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play. Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة), meaning "delicate" and "sensitive" in Arabic, was given to her when she was eight by her Muslim cousin. While in high school, she was a power forward on her basketball team. Her father also gave her lessons in karate and firearms use.

Music career

Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh. In 1988, local DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah's single, "Princess of the Posse", and gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy (who at the time hosted Yo! MTV Raps). Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records. They released Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen, in (1989). She was 18 at the time. In that same year, she also appeared as "Referee" on the UK label 'Music Of Life's album "1989-The Hustlers Convention (live)" remonstrating between MC Duke & an unknown emcee in the crowd not to battle & to deal with the "diss" laid down by Duke as a "man" she then gets cussed for "not being English". Her debut managed to be both a critical and commercial success and was followed by the albums Nature of a Sista and Black Reign, which contained the hit single, U.N.I.T.Y., for which she won a Grammy. After releasing four rap albums (the fourth being Order in the Court, released in 1998), she released a soul/jazz standards album in 2004 called The Dana Owens Album.

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 as a supporting actress in movies like House Party 2 (1991), Juice, Jungle Fever(1991), and Set It Off (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). 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, and Beauty Shop.

Read more at Wikipedia.org