Queen Latifah has received various accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two NAACP Image Awards, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award.
57 Facts About Queen Latifah
2.
At age 19, Latifah released her debut album All Hail the Queen, featuring the hit single "Ladies First".
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Queen Latifah has since released the albums The Dana Owens Album, Trav'lin' Light, and Persona.
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Queen Latifah created the daytime talk show The Queen Latifah Show, which ran from 1999 to 2001, and again from 2013 to 2015, in syndication.
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Queen Latifah has starred or co-starred in the films Bringing Down the House, Taxi, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Beauty Shop, Last Holiday, Hairspray, Joyful Noise, 22 Jump Street, and Girls Trip ; and provided voice work in the Ice Age film series.
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Queen Latifah received critical acclaim for her portrayal of blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO film Bessie, which she co-produced, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
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Queen Latifah is the daughter of Rita Lamae, a teacher at Irvington High School, and Lancelot Amos Owens, a police officer.
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Queen Latifah attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey and Essex Catholic Girls' High School in Irvington, but graduated from Irvington High School.
9.
Queen Latifah found her stage name, Latifah, meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, in a book of Arabic names when she was eight.
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Always tall, the 5-foot-10-inch Queen Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team.
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Queen Latifah began beat boxing for the hip-hop group Ladies Fresh and was an original member of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of MCs grouped around producer DJ King Gemini, who made a demo recording of Queen Latifah's rap Princess of the Posse.
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Queen Latifah is considered a contralto, having the ability to both rap and sing.
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Queen Latifah made her mark in hip-hop by rapping about the issues surrounding a black woman.
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Queen Latifah's songs had covered topics including domestic violence, harassment on the streets, and relationship problems.
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Queen Latifah received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1992.
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Queen Latifah was a member of the hip-hop collective Native Tongues.
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On July 11,2007, Queen Latifah sang at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as the headlining act in a live jazz concert.
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Later in 2007, Queen Latifah released an album titled Trav'lin' Light.
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In 2008, Queen Latifah was asked if she would make another hip-hop album.
20.
Queen Latifah was quoted stating that the album was done already and it would be called All Hail the Queen II.
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Queen Latifah began her film career by having supporting roles in the 1991 and 1992 films House Party 2, Juice and Jungle Fever.
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From 1993 to 1998, Queen Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, the FOX sitcom, which gained high ratings among black audiences; she wrote and performed its theme song.
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Queen Latifah appeared in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off, and had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud.
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Queen Latifah played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
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Queen Latifah had her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, from 1999 to 2001 and revamped in 2013.
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On January 6,2014, The Queen Latifah Show was renewed for a second season.
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However, on November 21,2014, Sony Pictures Television canceled Queen Latifah's show due to declining ratings.
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Queen Latifah herself received the nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role, but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.
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Queen Latifah recorded a song "Do Your Thing" for the soundtrack.
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Also in 2006, Queen Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly mammoth, in the animated film, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and appeared in the drama Stranger Than Fiction.
31.
Queen Latifah appeared on Saturday Night Live on October 4,2008, as moderator Gwen Ifill in a comedic sketch depicting the vice-presidential debate between then-Senator Joe Biden and then-Governor Sarah Palin and played in The Secret Life of Bees.
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In 2009, Queen Latifah was a presenter at the 81st Academy Awards, presenting the segment honoring film professionals who had died during 2008 and singing "I'll Be Seeing You" during the montage.
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Queen Latifah spoke at Michael Jackson's memorial service in Los Angeles.
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Queen Latifah sang "America the Beautiful" at Super Bowl XLIV hosted in Miami, Florida, on February 7,2010, with Carrie Underwood.
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Queen Latifah hosted the 2010 BET Awards on June 27,2010.
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Queen Latifah starred with Dolly Parton in Joyful Noise.
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In June 2011, Queen Latifah received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware.
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On January 26,2014, Queen Latifah officiated the weddings of 33 same-sex and opposite-sex couples during a performance of "Same Love" by Macklemore at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
39.
In 2015, Queen Latifah received a Best Actress Emmy nomination for her lead role as Bessie Smith in Bessie, an HBO film which received a total of 12 Emmy nominations.
40.
Queen Latifah is a contralto, and she has the ability to rap and sing.
41.
Queen Latifah cites Bessie Smith as one of her influences.
42.
Early in her career, Queen Latifah's lyrics were described as woman-centered and Afrocentric.
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Queen Latifah did not identify as a feminist at the time, and expressed that her music was not exclusive for the female audience.
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Queen Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Curvation women's underwear, Pizza Hut, and Jenny Craig.
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Queen Latifah represents her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the CoverGirl Queen Collection.
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On May 23,2018, Queen Latifah was named the godmother of Carnival Cruise Lines' vessel Carnival Horizon.
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Apart from singing, Queen Latifah has written a book on confidence and self-respect called Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman.
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In 1995, Queen Latifah was the victim of a carjacking, which resulted in the shooting of her boyfriend, Sean Moon.
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Queen Latifah was placed on three years' probation after being convicted.
50.
Disagreements between Foxy Brown and Queen Latifah began in mid-1996, where media reports indicated that Brown was a prime target of Latifah's diss record "Name Callin'", which was featured on the Set It Off soundtrack.
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Queen Latifah became the first solo female rapper to receive a RIAA certification for an album, a commercial breakthrough that the AllMusic editor considered as creating a path for "a talented crew of women rappers to make their own way onto the charts as the 90s progressed".
52.
Queen Latifah's breakthrough helped place New Jersey on the hip hop map.
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Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda has stated that Queen Latifah inspired the portrayal of Angelica Schuyler in the musical Hamilton.
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Queen Latifah became the first female hip-hop recording artist to get nominated for an Oscar.
55.
In 2003, Queen Latifah was awarded Artist of the Year by Harvard Foundation.
56.
In 2006, Queen Latifah became the first hip-hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011.
57.
Queen Latifah is a recipient of a Grammy Award from six nominations, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards from five nominations, two NAACP Image Awards from thirteen nominations, one Primetime Emmy Award from three nominations, and an Academy Award nomination.