56 Facts About Jada Pinkett Smith

1.

Jada Koren Pinkett Smith is an American actress and talk show host.

2.

Jada Pinkett Smith is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk, for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award.

3.

Pinkett Smith landed her big break on the sitcom A Different World in 1991.

4.

Jada Pinkett Smith went on to star in films such as Menace II Society, The Nutty Professor, Set It Off, and Scream 2 before her prominent contributions to The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and the animated Madagascar films.

5.

Jada Pinkett Smith returned to television with starring roles on Hawthorne and Gotham.

6.

Jada Pinkett Smith's other acting roles include Magic Mike XXL, Bad Moms, Girls Trip, and The Matrix Resurrections.

7.

In 2002, Pinkett Smith launched a music career as the lead singer and songwriter for the heavy metal band Wicked Wisdom.

8.

Jada Pinkett Smith's parents are Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the head nurse of a Baltimore inner-city clinic, and Robsol Pinkett Jr.

9.

Jada Pinkett Smith was raised by her mother and grandmother, Marion Martin Banfield, a Jamaican-born social worker.

10.

Jada Pinkett Smith attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she met and became close friends with her classmate, rapper Tupac Shakur.

11.

Jada Pinkett Smith majored in dance and theatre and graduated in 1989.

12.

Jada Pinkett Smith began her acting career in 1990, when she starred in an episode of True Colors.

13.

In 1993, Jada Pinkett Smith appeared in her first film, Menace II Society.

14.

Jada Pinkett Smith was cast as Ronnie, a single mother, due to a recommendation from her friend Tupac Shakur, who was set to appear in the film before he was fired.

15.

Jada Pinkett Smith considered dropping out of the film after Shakur's departure but he convinced her to keep the role.

16.

In 1994, Jada Pinkett Smith acted with Keenen Ivory Wayans in the action and comedy film A Low Down Dirty Shame.

17.

Jada Pinkett Smith described her character, Peaches, as "raw" with "major attitude", and her acting garnered positive reviews.

18.

In 1995, Jada Pinkett Smith played a convict on work release in the horror film Demon Knight.

19.

Jada Pinkett Smith directed the music video "How Many Times" by Gerald Levert and appeared in the video.

20.

Jada Pinkett Smith came up with the concept for his "California Love" music video which she had intended to direct, but she removed herself from the project.

21.

In 1996, Jada Pinkett Smith directed the music video "Keep On, Keepin' On" by MC Lyte Feat.

22.

Jada Pinkett Smith starred with actor and comedian Eddie Murphy in the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor, portraying the love interest of a kindhearted university professor who is morbidly obese.

23.

Jada Pinkett Smith had a lead role in Set It Off, a crime drama about four women who rob banks to escape from poverty, opposite Queen Latifah, Vivica A Fox, and Kimberly Elise.

24.

Jada Pinkett Smith's acting in the film was noted in the San Francisco Chronicle, which wrote that she was "the one to watch".

25.

In 1997, Jada Pinkett Smith had a cameo role in Scream 2 as a college student who is brutally murdered in front of hundreds of filmgoers.

26.

Jada Pinkett Smith next starred in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled as a personal assistant to the main character, played by Damon Wayans.

27.

In 2001, Pinkett Smith portrayed a loud-mouthed wife in the moderately successful comedy Kingdom Come, with LL Cool J, Vivica A Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, and Whoopi Goldberg.

28.

Directly after she filmed her scenes for Ali, Pinkett Smith flew to Australia to work on the Matrix sequels.

29.

Jada Pinkett Smith voiced Gloria, a strong, confident, but sweet hippopotamus, in the computer animated film Madagascar.

30.

In 2008, Pinkett Smith took on the role of a lesbian author in the all-female comedy The Women, opposite Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Eva Mendes.

31.

Pinkett Smith was an executive producer and starred as a Chief Nursing Officer in the TNT medical drama Hawthorne, which premiered on June 16,2009.

32.

Jada Pinkett Smith returned, recurrently, in the second and third seasons of the series.

33.

Jada Pinkett Smith starred with Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate in the comedy Bad Moms, as the sidekick of a domineering parent-teacher association head.

34.

Pinkett Smith next took on the role of a nurse and uptight mom in the comedy Girls Trip, alongside Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish.

35.

In July 2017, Pinkett Smith appeared at the Essence Festival where, on the Empowerment Stage, she appeared to talk alongside Queen Latifah.

36.

Pinkett Smith spoke highly of the cast reflecting their characters in real life, stating that they are all women who love other women and work to empower each other, a feature that she notes as rare in Hollywood.

37.

Pinkett Smith both narrates and produces the Netflix docu-series African Queens.

38.

The band consists of Pinkett Smith performing lead vocals, Pocket Honore, Cameron "Wirm" Graves, and Rio.

39.

Pinkett Smith published her first children's book, Girls Hold Up This World, in 2004.

40.

In 2015, the Jada Pinkett Smith couple were among the founding investors of an energy storage company.

41.

In 1997, Pinkett Smith was the emcee of the Million Woman March in Philadelphia.

42.

In 2006, Pinkett Smith donated $1 million to her high school alma mater, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and dedicated the new theater to her classmate and close friend Tupac Shakur.

43.

In 2012, on behalf of PETA, Pinkett Smith wrote a letter to Baltimore's mayor, asking that the visiting Ringling Brothers Circus "comply with Baltimore's absolute prohibition of the use of devices such as bullhooks" and not harm the elephants.

44.

Pinkett Smith had a close friendship with rapper Tupac Shakur which was formed when they were both attending the Baltimore School for the Arts.

45.

Jada Pinkett Smith appeared in his music videos "Keep Ya Head Up" and "Temptations".

46.

Jada Pinkett Smith came up with the concept for his "California Love" music video and had intended to direct it, but she removed herself from the project.

47.

In 2018, Pinkett Smith said that she had been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease alopecia areata.

48.

Jada Pinkett Smith met Will Smith in 1994 on the set of Smith's television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when she auditioned for the role of his character's girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes.

49.

Jada Pinkett Smith was considered too short and the role went to actress Nia Long.

50.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith later began dating after he separated from Sheree Fletcher.

51.

Jada Pinkett Smith eventually moved from her hometown of Baltimore to California to be with him.

52.

On December 31,1997, while Jada Pinkett Smith was three months pregnant, about 100 guests attended their wedding at The Cloisters, near her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

53.

Jada Pinkett Smith is the stepmother of Trey Smith, her husband's son from a previous marriage.

54.

Jada Pinkett Smith claimed that the affair happened with Will Smith's permission.

55.

Pinkett Smith said that Alsina misconstrued it as permission because she and her husband were "separated amicably".

56.

Jada Pinkett Smith eventually got back together with her husband after breaking off the relationship with Alsina and stated she has not spoken to him since.