Biography of Jada Pinkett SmithJada Koren Pinkett was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 18, 1971. While studying music and dance during her upbringing, she attended Baltimore's School of Arts. Upon completion, she decided to further her studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
This step in her life was cut short after only a year, however, when she decided to speed up the process and take her chances by moving to Los Angeles. Her ultimate goal was to pursue a career in acting.
Once settled in Los Angeles, Jada began making contacts and frequented several Hollywood hotspots with the intentions of catching her first big break. This came about when she encountered Keenan Ivory Wayans, who at the time was doing well with his TV series, In Living Color. Although Keenan chose not to take Pinkett under his wing, he managed to help her along the way toward stardom by hooking her up with an agent.
Jada's first major role came in 1991 when she joined the cast of A Different World, as Lena James. From this point on, she took a huge leap in her career and starred in several minor roles in numerous big screen productions, the first of which was 1993's Menace II Society, in which she was praised for her dramatic performance.
Jada found herself starring in a variety of supporting roles over the next couple of years. She was cast alongside Keenan Ivory Wayans in the 1994 comedy A Low Down Dirty Shame, starred in the coming-of-age comedy The Inkwell, and got a taste of the horror-flick genre as well in 1995's Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight.
Although her first lead role came about in 1994's Jason's Lyric, the big screen production that truly put her on the map was the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy. Jada's highly acclaimed supporting role was a turning point in her career, thus enabling her to land roles in other successful films, including Set It Off, Scream 2, Woo, and Bamboozled.
In 1997, Pinkett added another page to her Hollywood repertoire by marrying actor/rapper Will Smith. The two have come to be one of Hollywood's hottest and best-known couples in recent history.
Will and Jada, who first met in 1995 on the set of Smith's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (she auditioned for the role of Will's girlfriend but was turned down), have since had two children together. Their son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith was born on July 8, 1998, and their second child, daughter Willow Camille Reign Smith, was born on October 31, 2000.
Nowadays, Jada has been leading a pretty busy lifestyle by juggling motherhood, marriage and acting. She joined Will in 2001's Ali, and then reemerged in the spotlight with the role of Niobe in 2003's The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Jada appeared as Jamie Foxx's love interest in 2004's Collateral before lending her voice to "Gloria the Hippo" in 2005's animated feature, Madagascar.
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