Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey), better known as Queen Latifah, and considered the first lady of rap, is an American rapper from the early and mid 1990s and is also an actress.

Owens' parents divorced when she was eight years old. Her father was a police officer. Latifah's first big success was singing the number "Home" from The Wiz in a school performance of the musical.

She started her career beatboxing for rap group Ladies Fresh. Local DJ Mark the 45 King heard a demo version of Latifah's "Princess of the Posse" in 1988, gave the demo to Fab Five Freddy, who was then host of Yo! MTV Raps, and Fab 5 Freddy helped Latifah get signed to Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album, All Hail the Queen (1989), when she was 18. In 1995, she was the victim of a carjacking, in which a friend of hers was shot. Her older brother Lance was killed in 1992 in an accident on a bike that Latifah had just bought him. She still wears the key to the bike around her neck. Her debut, All Hail the Queen was critically acclaimed as one of the best hip hop albums of all time. This was followed by Nature of a Sista, another well-reviewed album. After that, Latifah began working on Living Single, a FOX sitcom. She was also arrested in possession of a small amount of marijuana and a gun. In 1992, her brother died in a car accident and Latifah released an album dedicated to him, Black Reign, which was a hit partly because of a hit single, U.N.I.T.Y. In 1998 she made an album entitled Order in the Court. In 2003 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Matron "Mama" Morton in the movie musical Chicago. In 2003, she co-starred with Steve Martin in the marginally well received comedy Bringing Down the House (2003), as a woman who is 'mismatched' through a legal advice chat room with Martin's character. Other recent movies Latifah has appeared in are Scary Movie 3 and Barbershop 2. Upcoming movie projects for Latifah include Taxi (2004), a remake of a French movie of the same name.

She stands 5'9". Her name Latifah, meaning "delicate" and "sensitive" in Arabic, was given her when she was eight by her cousin.