Queen
Latifah

One of the major forerunners for women in modern hip-hop, Queen Latifah, has been a major force in the music world, while making successful transitions to television, movies, producing, and the talk show format.

She most recently scored on the big screen with surprise hit “Girls Night,” a raunchy buddy comedy that held its own amid summer blockbusters, and continues to do her thing on TV with a role in the Fox series “Star.”

A New Jersey native, she got her start in 1989 when she signed with Tommy Boy Records, releasing her debut album “All Hail the Queen, which contained the smash-hit single “Ladies First.” After the release of her second album in 1991, “Nature of a Sista,” she landed a role on the FOX sitcom “Living Single,” before dropping her third album in 1993, “Black Reign,” which featured the Grammy-winning single “U.N.I.T.Y.”

Latifah has amassed a list of big-screen credits which include box-office hits “Set It Off,” “Bringing Down the House,” “Barbershop 2: Back in Business,” “Beauty Shop,” and “Chicago,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Her CBS daytime talk show, “The Queen Latifah Show,” ran from 2013-2015, and in 2015, she won an Outstanding Television Movie Emmy for her producing work on the HBO film “Bessie.” Latifah has also garnered two NAACP Image Awards, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, while her albums have sold over two million copies.