Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith
Pinkett Smith in 2001
Born	Jada Koren Pinkett
Other names	Jada Koren
Occupation(s)	Film actor, singer-songwriter
Years active	Film actor: 1990–present Musician: 2002–present
Spouse	Will Smith (1997–present)
Website	http://www.jadapinkettsmith.com

Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (born Jada Koren Pinkett; September 18, 1971) is an American film actor and singer-songwriter. She began her career in 1990, when she held a guest appearance in the short-lived sitcom True Colors. Her fame began to rise when she starred in dramatic films such as Menace II Society (1993) and Set It Off (1996). She has held several roles in various movies, spanning many different genres, and is probably best known for her roles in films such as Ali, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions.

Pinkett Smith branched out into music in 2002, when she helped create the metal rock band Wicked Wisdom, in which she is a singer and songwriter. The band has released one album to date and appeared at the Ozzfest music festival in 2005. She has also created her own production company, as well as her own clothing line, and is the author of a children's book, published in 2004.

Married to actor/rapper Will Smith since 1997, Pinkett Smith has two children with Will, Jaden and Willow Smith, and is the stepmother to Will's son from a previous marriage, Willard "Trey" Smith III. Together, the couple have founded the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, a charity organization which has donated funds to various charities and taken part in charity events.

Early life

Pinkett Smith, named after her mother's favorite soap opera actress, Jada Rowlands, was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Adrienne Banfield-Jones (née Banfield), the head nurse of an inner-city clinic in Baltimore, and Robsol Pinkett, Jr., who runs a construction company. Banfield-Jones became pregnant with Pinkett Smith when she was in high school and after a few months of marriage, Pinkett Smith's parents divorced. Her mother continued to raise Pinkett Smith in Baltimore with the help of Pinkett Smith's grandmother, Marion Banfield, who passed away when Pinkett Smith was 14-years-old.

Banfield, a social worker at the time, saw her granddaughter's passion for the performing arts and encouraged her by enrolling her in piano, tap dance, and ballet lessons while Banfield-Jones escorted Pinkett Smith to various auditions, rehearsals, and performances around town. Pinkett Smith has said:

My mother has always been very supportive and believed in my dreams and endeavors - even to this day she helps me out when I'm filming and traveling."

Pinkett Smith remains close to her mother, stating, "A mother and daughter's relationship is usually the most honest, and we are so close," when she participated as the maid of honor in Banfield-Jones' marriage to her current husband, telecommunications executive Paul Jones, in 1998. She has also shown great admiration for her grandmother, commenting, "My grandmother was a doer who wanted to create a better community and add beauty to the world."

Pinkett Smith majored in dance and theatre at the Baltimore School for the Arts, graduating in 1989. She then proceeded in furthering her education at the North Carolina School of the Arts, but dropped out after a year to move to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in acting. Honored with the highest level of membership, she is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first Greek-lettered sorority established and incorporated by African American women.

Acting career

Early work, 1991–1995

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, Pinkett Smith applied for the choreographer position for the television series In Living Color, a show created by actor Keenan Ivory Wayans. Although she failed to get the job, Wayans helped her find an acting agent and the two became close friends. She began her acting career in 1990, when she starred in a television pilot for supernatural drama Moe's World. Although the pilot was never aired, she moved on to guest roles in television shows such as True Colors (1990), Doogie Howser, M.D. (1991), and 21 Jump Street (1991). In 1991, she auditioned for a role on actor/comedian Bill Cosby's NBC television sitcom A Different World, as college freshman Lena James, a character that was based on Pinkett Smith's own style and character. She continued to play the role for two years before the show ended in 1993.

Pinkett Smith made her feature film debut in 1993 in the critically-acclaimed drama film Menace II Society as Ronnie, a single young mother trying to survive in Watts, California. She then moved on to romance films, reuniting with her Menace II Society co-star Larenz Tate, to star in The Inkwell (1994) as Tate's love interest, Lauren Kelly. The film received poor reviews, with Entertainment Weekly deeming it "bogus". She continued on to portray Lyric in another romance film, Jason's Lyric (1994).

In 1994, Pinkett Smith finally received her chance to work with Wayans in the action/comedy A Low Down Dirty Shame. "He busted my ass," she exclaimed to Entertainment Weekly. "I had to read twice, no three times, for him!" She described her character, Peaches, as "raw" with "major attitude" and her acting garnered rave reviews, with The New York Times labeling her performance:

Ms. Pinkett, whose performance is as sassy and sizzling as a Salt-n-Pepa recording, walks away with the movie.

Breakthrough, 1996–2000

Following a role in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Pinkett Smith starred in several films the following year. The 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor put her opposite actor/comedian Eddie Murphy and was her biggest box office film to date, raking in over $25 million in its first weekend and opening in over 2,000 theaters. She subsequently landed a role in the film If These Walls Could Talk (1996), as Patti. Co-directed by Cher, produced by Demi Moore, and co-starring Cher, Moore, and Sissy Spacek, the made for television movie earned several Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations and gained Pinkett Smith even more exposure.

Set It Off (1996), a crime drama film about four women who turn to bank robberies to help escape from their poverty-stricken lives, helped to put Pinkett Smith on the map. Co-starring Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise, Pinkett Smith portrayed Lida "Stony" Newsom, a young woman struggling to care for her younger brother after the death of their parents, in an effort to send him to college. Her acting in the film prompted the San Francisco Chronicle to deem her as "the one to watch".

Pinkett Smith continued to take on roles throughout the late 1990s, including a voice role in the Japanese anime Princess Mononoke (1997), a cameo in Scream 2 (1997), a supporting role in Return to Paradise (1998), and starring roles in the comedy film Woo (1998) and the short film Blossoms and Veils (1998), written and directed by Grey's Anatomy creater Shonda Rhimes.

In 2000, Pinkett Smith was cast in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled (2000), as Sloan Hopkins, a personal assistant to the main character portrayed by Damon Wayans. Although the film was met with mediocre reviews, this did not stop it from winning the Freedom of Expression Award by the National Board of Review. She went on to star in the comedy film Kingdom Come (2001) with Whoopi Goldberg.

International success, 2001–present

In 2001, Pinkett Smith took on the supporting role of Sonji Roi, the first wife of famous boxer Muhammad Ali, in the biographical film Ali (2001). This would mark the first film that she would participate in with her husband, actor Will Smith, who portrayed Ali. The film received mostly good reviews from critics and earned her a nomination from the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

File:Jada Pinkett Smith Niobe.jpg

Pinkett Smith as Niobe in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Probably her best known roles to date, Pinkett Smith went directly to Australia after filming her scenes in Ali to play the part of human rebel Niobe in the films The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), sequels to the hit The Matrix (1999). She had met the directors, The Wachowski Brothers, several times before they had begun to film The Matrix and they all formed a close bond. The character was eventually written, specifically, with Pinkett Smith in mind. The role threw her into the spotlight, as the The Matrix already had a cult following of fans, and the sequels garnished over $91 million and $48 million in their opening weekends, respectively. Her acting in The Matrix Revolutions earned her another nomination for the Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

In 2004, Pinkett Smith reunited with director Michael Mann, whom she had previously worked with on Ali, when she was cast as United States Department of Justice prosecutor, Annie Farrell, in the thriller film Collateral, co-starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. She told Lena Aburdene of The Cinema Source:

Michael Mann was telling me, ‘Jada, you have 15 minutes to make a substantial connection with Jamie Foxx to hold the audience until the end of the movie. People have got to care about you or the movie doesn’t work.' I found that to be quite challenging, and thank goodness for Michael Mann because he crafted every moment and dialogue in that scene.

Pinkett Smith then provided her voice for Gloria the hippo in the DreamWorks' animated film Madagascar (2005). Director Eric Darnell stated, "[Pinkett Smith]'s got all this incredible power and attitude and strength and confidence, which is just what we wanted for Gloria the hippo," with Pinkett Smith commenting, "For Gloria, I really liked how maternal she was. She's kind of like a mama that has a tough-love approach, but still very sweet. I really liked [that] she was so maternal." She reprised the role for the sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which was released in November 2008.

Pinkett Smith returned to drama when she co-starred with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in Reign Over Me (2007). The film revolves around a friendship that has been lost between Charlie Fineman (Sandler) and Dr. Alan Johnson (Cheadle), but is rekindled after Fineman loses his family to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Pinkett Smith plays Janeane Johnson, the wife of Cheadle's character. Reception of the movie consisted of mixed reviews with Entertainment Weekly calling the film "a strange, black-and-blue therapeutic drama equally mottled with likable good intentions and agitating clumsiness."

In 2008, Pinkett Smith starred alongside Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, and Debra Messing in The Women, directed by Emmy Award-winner Diane English. Portraying lesbian author Alex Fisher, she said in an interview, "Alex is def a nice slice of Jad. I would hope in my ‘more mature years’ that I’ve grown to have a little bit more finesse in my truth than Alex, but I do like to say what’s on my mind. I do like to clown around a little bit. And I do tend to be a lot tougher than I really am.”

Pinkett Smith completed her directorial debut, The Human Contract, in 2008, which she also wrote and has a small role in. The film stars Paz Vega and Idris Elba and debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. Her next project is the TNT drama pilot Time Heals, in which she is executive producer and a starring cast member.

Music career

Under the stage name Jada Koren, Pinkett Smith formed the heavy metal rock band Wicked Wisdom in 2002. Along with Pinkett Smith, who is the lead vocalist, the band consists of members Pocket Honore (guitar, vocals), Cameron "Wirm" Graves (guitar, keyboard, vocals), and Rio (bass, vocals). The band is managed by James Lassiter and Miguel Melendez of Overbrook Entertainment, a company co-founded by Will Smith. About making the band, she said:

I listened to all kinds of metal as a kid. Metallica, Guns N' Roses. I would always look at Axl Rose and say, 'Why aren't there any chicks out there doing this now?' I always wanted an opportunity to get out there and rock out.

Wicked Wisdom landed a slot on one of the year's highest profile tours in 2004, Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel Tour. The band opened for Spears for eight dates in April and May 2004, during the European leg of the tour.

The band released their debut album, Wicked Wisdom, on February 21, 2006, on Pinkett Smith's production company, 100% Womon. Will helped as executive producer. The album made it to Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart, peaking at number 44 during the week of March 11, 2006. Alex Henderson at allmusic stated in a review of the album, "[Pinkett Smith] shows herself to be an expressive, commanding singer" and that "[Wicked Wisdom] shows considerable promise". The band promoted the album in 2006, touring with heavy metal band Sevendust.

Ozzfest 2005

In 2005, Sharon Osbourne went to see Wicked Wisdom perform at a small night club in Los Angeles, California. Osbourne said, "I was blown away. When you see and hear Jada with her band it's apparent that she has nothing but love and respect for this genre of music." It was subsequently announced in May 2005 that the band would be performing as part of the second-stage lineup at 2005's Ozzfest. Ozzfest fans were outraged, claiming that the band did not have the credibility to perform at the music festival. A petition was created at PetitionOnline, garnishing 501 signatures. Aware of the questioning of the band's addition to Ozzfest, Pinkett Smith stated, "I'm not here asking for any favors. You've got to show and prove. And not every audience is going to go for it." Despite the controversy, Honore said that, while some early dates of the tour were rocky, "once word got out that we weren't a joke, people started coming out and by the sixth or seventh gig we were on fire." Pinkett Smith reiterated, "After seven dates within the Ozzfest tour, the whole attitude of it started to turn around once the word of mouth started getting out."

Relationships and family

Pinkett Smith has been married to actor/rapper Will Smith since December 31, 1997. The two first met in 1990 on the set of Will's television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when she auditioned for the role of Will's girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes. Thought to be too short (Pinkett Smith is 5'0" and Will is 6'2"), she was turned down for the role, which eventually went to actor Nia Long. This did not stop Pinkett Smith and Will from forming a friendship. Will proposed to her in November 1997 and the two were wed among about 100 guests at the Cloisters, near her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Commenting on her marriage, Pinkett Smith stated that the couple are "private people" and has said, "I will throw my career away before I let it break up our marriage. I made it clear to Will. I'd throw it away completely."

Since their marriage, Pinkett Smith and Will have had two children together: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born July 8, 1998 in Malibu, California) and Willow Camille Reign Smith (born October 31, 2000 in Los Angeles, California). Pinkett Smith is also the stepmother to Willard "Trey" Christopher Smith III (born November 11, 1992), Will's son from a previous marriage. All three children have appeared onscreen alongside Will: "Trey" starred in the music video for Will's song "Just the Two of Us" from the album, Big Willie Style (1997); Jaden co-starred in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006); and Willow made a cameo appearance in I Am Legend (2007). Pinkett Smith has stated, "I love being a mother" and commented on her and Will's parenting skills: "We're not strict but we definitely believe it's a very important component for rearing children. It creates safety for them. They understand that they need guidance." Trey attends Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California, while Jaden and Willow are homeschooled.

Pinkett Smith resides with her family in a 27,000-square-foot mansion, on 100 acres, in Malibu, California.

Ventures

As well as opening her own production company, 100% Womon Productions, Pinkett Smith created her own fashion line, Maja, in 1994. The clothing line features women's T-shirts and dresses embellished with the slogan "Sister Power" and is sold primarily through small catalogs.

In 2003, Pinkett Smith and Will helped to create the television series All of Us, which originally aired on UPN. The sitcom starred Duane Martin and LisaRaye and revolved around Martin's character trying to juggle relationships with his ex-wife (LisaRaye), his 5-year-old son (Khamani Griffin), and his new fiancée (Elise Neal). Pinkett Smith and Will helped as executive producers and guest starred in several episodes, saying that the show is "very, very loosely" based on their life. The show was moved to The CW in 2006 after the merge of the UPN and The WB networks, but was cancelled in 2007.

Pinkett Smith published her first children's book, Girls Hold Up This World, in 2004. The cover of the book features Pinkett Smith and her daughter, Willow. Pinkett Smith told USA Today:

I wrote the book for Willow and for her friends and for all the little girls in the world who need affirmation about being female in this pretty much masculine world. I really tried to capture different sides of femininity. I want girls in the world to feel powerful, to know they have the power to change the world in any way they wish.

In 2005, Pinkett Smith became one of the many celebrities who helped to invest $10 million in Carol's Daughter, a line of beauty products created by Lisa Price. She became a spokesperson for the beauty line, commenting, "To be a part of another African American woman's dream was just priceless to me." Both Pinkett Smith and Will had been loyal customers of Carol's Daughter before an investment plan had been made.

Charity work and politics

Together with Will, Pinkett Smith has created the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, a 501(c)(3) charity focusing on youth in urban inner cities and family support. She included her family in helping run the charity, making her aunt, Karen Banfield Evans, executive director of the foundation. The charity was awarded the David Angell Humanitarian Award by the American Screenwriters Association (ASA) in 2006. John E. Johnson, executive director of the ASA, stated, "Will and Jada exemplify the principles of the David Angell Humanitarian Award through their support of projects focusing on urban and inner city youth, family wellbeing, violence prevention and education. Their philosophy of leading a positive lifestyle and sincere interest in helping people everywhere is inspirational."

During her attendance at the Baltimore School for the Arts, Pinkett Smith met classmate Tupac Shakur, who was a famous rapper and actor during the early 1990s. She maintained a close friendship with Shakur up until the time of his death in September 1996. In December 2006, she donated $1 million to the Baltimore School for the Arts, in memory of Shakur. The head of the school's theater department, and Pinkett Smith's former teacher, Donald Hicken said, "It means a lot when you're a teacher and your most famous alumnus comes back to give a donation. It really says a lot to the community that the school matters in people's lives."

With Pinkett Smith's aunt, Banfield Evans, being diagnosed with lupus, the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, in association with the Lupus Foundation of America and Maybelline, held the first annual Butterflies Over Hollywood event on September 29, 2007 at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Headlining a list of over 300 celebrities and guests, Pinkett Smith did her part in helping to raise donations given to LFA public and professional educational programs. The Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation was also presented with an award in 2007, at the 4th Annual Lupus Foundation of America Awards.

The Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation has also made donations to non-profit organizations, such as YouthBuild, and Pinkett Smith has personally donated funds to organizations such as Capital K-9s.

After meeting famed Scientologist Tom Cruise during the filming of Collateral in 2004, Pinkett Smith and Will donated $20,000 to the Hollywood Education and Literacy Program (HELP), Scientology's basis for homeschooling. The couple came under fire in 2008 when they decided to fund New Village Leadership Academy, a private elementary school located in Calabasas, California. The school includes instructors dedicated to the Scientology religion and educational methodologies include study technology, a methodology created by Church of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The couple, who are close friends with Cruise and wife Katie Holmes, have denied claims that they, themselves, are Scientologists, and Jaqueline Olivier, the administrator for New Village Leadership Academy insists that the school has no religious affiliation.

A supporter of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Pinkett Smith stated in an interview, "I love Michelle [and] would play her any day," in response to being asked if she would play Michelle Obama in a biopic. She added, "I'm voting for Michelle. I'm always telling people I'm voting for Michelle to get into the White House and Obama is just going to follow her lead. She is smart and committed, and I just love her." Pinkett Smith joined her The Women co-star, Meg Ryan, in her views about Alaskan governor and Republican Party vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, commenting, "It's nice to see that women in America are being extremely vocal about politics this year. But her being a woman hasn't made me sway to that side. Not one bit." Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, marking him the first U.S. president of African descent.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1993	Menace II Society	Ronnie
1994	The Inkwell	Lauren Kelly
	Jason's Lyric	Lyric
	A Low Down Dirty Shame	Peaches
1995	Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight	Jeryline
1996	The Nutty Professor	Carla Purty
	If These Walls Could Talk	Patti	Made for television movie
	Set It Off	Lida "Stony" Newsom
1997	Princess Mononoke	Toke	Voice
	Scream 2	Maureen Evans	Cameo
1998	Woo	Woo
	Blossoms and Veils	Mary	Short film
	Return to Paradise	M.J. Major
2000	Bamboozled	Sloan Hopkins
2001	Kingdom Come	Charisse Slocumb
	Ali	Sonji
2003	The Matrix Reloaded	Niobe
	The Matrix Revolutions	Niobe
2004	Collateral	Annie
2005	Madagascar	Gloria	Voice
2007	Reign Over Me	Janeane Johnson
2008	The Women	Alex Fisher
	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	Gloria	Voice
	The Human Contract	Rita	Debuted at Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. Written and directed by Pinkett Smith.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film/TV Show	Result
1997	Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture	Set It Off	Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series	If These Walls Could Talk	Nominated
1998	Blockbuster Entertainment Award	Favorite Supporting Actress – Horror	Scream 2	Nominated
2001	Black Reel Award	Theatrical – Best Actress	Bamboozled	Nominated
	Image Award	Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture		Nominated
2002	Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Ali	Nominated
2003	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actress – Drama/Action Adventure	The Matrix Reloaded	Nominated
2004	Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	The Matrix Revolutions	Nominated
2005	BET Comedy Award	Best Performance in an Animated Theatrical Film	Madagascar	Nominated
	Black Reel Award	Best Supporting Actress	Collateral	Nominated
	Image Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture		Nominated
(Source: IMDb.com)

External links

• Official Website of Jada Pinkett Smith
• Jada Pinkett Smith at IMDb
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• Official Website of Wicked Wisdom
• Official Website of New Village Leadership Academy