Black Beauty History: Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by the stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, and actress. Latifah’s work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, Grammy Award, five additional Grammy nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.

Latifah started her career beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh.^[3] Latifah was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of emcees grouped around producer DJ Mark the 45 King. In 1988, 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 was the host of Yo! MTV Raps. Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah’s first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen.^[3] That year, she appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album “1989—The Hustlers Convention (live)”. Her debut managed to be both a critical and a commercial success and was followed by the albums Nature of a Sista and Black Reign, which contained the Grammy Award winning hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In 1998, she released her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court. In 2004, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album.

From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a FOX sitcom;^[3] she also wrote and performed its theme music. She began her film career in a supporting role in the 1991 films House Party 2, Juice, and Jungle Fever.

Latifah first attracted notice for her role portraying 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).^[3] She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie adaptation of Jeffrey Deavers’ The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. 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.^[3] Latifah received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role, but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.^[3] In 2003, she starred with Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House, which was a major success at the box office.^[3] 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, Kung Faux, and Beauty Shop.

The summer of 2007 has brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit Hairspray, in which she acts, sings, and dances. The film has rated highly with critics and stars, among others, John Travolta and Christopher Walken. Also in 2007, she portrayed an HIV-positive woman in the film, Life Support, a role for which she garnered her first Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. Latifah is starting off 2008 with the release of the crime comedy Mad Money opposite Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton as well as Katie Holmes and Ted Danson.

Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.^[12] She has developed her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the Covergirl Queen Collection and has starred in several commercials for the line, as well as a commercial with fellow spokeswoman and singer Faith Hill