Will Smith Biography
American actor and rapper Willard Carroll Smith II, also known as The Fresh Prince for a short time, was born on September 25, 1968. He has won numerous honors, including four Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award. He is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars as of 2023, with global box office receipts for his films exceeding $9.3 billion.
On the NBC comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996), Smith played a fictitious version of himself to launch his acting career. He originally came to prominence as a member of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff, with whom he recorded five studio albums and the top 20 US Billboard Hot 100 singles “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” “A Nightmare on My Street,” “Summertime,” “Ring My Bell,” and “Boom! Shake the Room” between 1984 and 1994. The US number-one singles “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” and “Wild Wild West” were featured on his solo albums Big Willie Style (1997), Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002), and Lost and Found (2005). For his rap performances, he has won four Grammy Awards.
In movies like the action movie Bad Boys (1995), its sequels Bad Boys II (2003) and Bad Boys for Life (2020), and the science fiction comedies Men in Black (1997), Men in Black II (2002), and Men in Black 3 (2012), Smith rose to greater popularity as a leading actor. He garnered nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performances as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001), which followed his lead roles in the thrillers Independence Day (1996) and Enemy of the State. Then he appeared in a number of critically acclaimed and financially lucrative movies, such as I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016), and Aladdin (2019).
Smith earned the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for his depiction of Richard Williams in the biographical sports drama King Richard (2021). When Chris Rock made an unscripted joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, at the 2022 Academy Awards event, just before winning, Smith came under fire from the crowd for slapping and yelling at Rock. Following Smith’s resignation from the Academy, the Academy forbade him for ten years from attending any Academy events, including the Oscars.
Will Smith Early life
Willard Carroll Smith II was born in Philadelphia on September 25, 1968, to Willard Carroll Smith Sr., a refrigeration engineer and former US Air Force serviceman, and Caroline (née Bright), a school board official. His mother earned a degree from Carnegie Mellon.
He was brought up a Baptist and lived in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood. He has two younger siblings, the identical Harry and Ellen, as well as an older sister named Pamela. He went to Overbrook High School and a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia called Our Lady of Lourdes. His parents got divorced in the early 2000s after divorcing when he was 13 years old.
At the age of 12, Smith started rapping. “Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like this to express themselves,” she wrote on a page in the book after discovering a notebook of his songs that he claimed contained “all [his] little curse words.” I beg you to prove to the world that you are as smart as we believe you to be. Smith claimed that this had an impact on his choice to refrain from using profanity in his music.
Will Smith Career
1985–1992: DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
With his boyhood buddy Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes serving as turntablist and producer, Smith first gained notoriety as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. In 1985, Townes and Smith were accidentally introduced to one another when Townes was missing his hype man and performed at a house party just a few doors down from Smith’s home. Smith chose to step in. Townes was displeased when his hype guy eventually arrived at the party because they had a strong chemistry.
Soon after, they made the decision to work together. Clarence Holmes, aka Ready Rock C, a friend of Smith’s, joined the group as the beatboxer, turning them into a trio. Philadelphia-based Word Records’ first single, “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble,” which told the humorous story of how Smith and his former DJ and rap partner Mark Forrest (Lord Supreme) got into trouble, was released in 1986 after A&R manager Paul Oakenfold introduced them to Champion Records. The “I Dream of Jeannie” theme song was sampled in the song. Smith gained popularity for his humorous story-telling raps and skillful “battle” rhymes that were yet devoid of vulgarity. A month before Smith’s high school graduation, the song was a success.
Due of their success, Jive Records and Russell Simmons became aware of the group. In March 1987, Jive made their debut with the duo’s debut album, Rock the House, which had previously been released on Word Up in 1986. Although “Parents Just Don’t Understand” (1988), the group’s first nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, won the award in 1989, their most popular track was “Summertime” (1991), which won the group their second Grammy and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Smith and Townes, who collaborated on tracks under Smith’s solo artist credit, are still close friends and insist that they never broke up.
Around 1988 and 1989, Smith underpaid his income taxes and spent money carelessly. Smith was finally hit with a $2.8 million tax bill, much of his valuables were taken, and his income was garnisheed. When the NBC television network signed Smith to a contract and created the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air around him in 1990, he was having financial difficulties. The popularity of the program launched his acting career. Smith set himself the objective of becoming “the biggest movie star in the world” by researching the traits of box office winners. Smith was detained in 1989 in connection with an alleged assault on William Hendricks, who promoted Smith’s records; the accusations were eventually dropped.
1993–1997: Solo music and film breakthrough
The drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action movie Bad Boys (1995), in which he costarred with Martin Lawrence, were Smith’s first significant appearances. The latter movie was a commercial hit, earning $141.4 million globally. The response from the critics was, however, uneven overall. Smith was a member of the ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day in 1996. The movie was a huge hit, ranking as the second-highest grossing movie of all time at the time and making Smith a top box office draw.
He played Agent J in the popular Men in Black movie with Tommy Lee Jones in the summer of 1997. With an estimated 54,616,700 tickets sold in the US, Columbia Pictures’ July 2 release of the movie brought in over $589.3 million worldwide against a $90 million budget, making it the third-highest-grossing movie of the year. It garnered favorable reviews, with reviewers praising Jones’ and Smith’s performances as well as the humor in it.
Smith launched his solo music career in the summer of 1997 with the release of “Men in Black,” the movie’s theme song, which topped singles charts in many countries, including the UK. Later, “Men in Black” and Smith’s second hit “Just Cruisin'” were both featured on his debut solo album Big Willie Style, which peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard 200 and was awarded a nine-time platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). When it was released in 1998, “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It,” the third single from the album, earned Smith’s first Billboard Hot 100 number one.
1998–2007: Leading man status
Smith and Gene Hackman co-starred in the 1998 film Enemy of the State. He declined the role of Neo in The Matrix the next year in favor of Wild Wild West (1999). Despite the failure of Wild Wild West, Smith insisted that he has no regrets about his choice, claiming that Keanu Reeves’s portrayal of Neo was better than anything he could have done himself. However, in interviews conducted after the film’s release, Smith acknowledged that he “made a mistake on Wild Wild West.” That might have been more ideal.
The lead single from Smith’s second album, “Wild Wild West,” which featured Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, was another film theme song. It was rated gold by the RIAA. Willennium, the album in question, received a double platinum certification from the RIAA and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. The album’s second song, “Will 2K,” peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A video album containing Smith’s seven music videos to date was published before 1999 came to an end, and it peaked at number 25 on the UK Music Video Chart. He also appeared on Tatyana Ali’s track “Boy You Knock Me Out” from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which peaked at number one on the UK R&B Singles Chart and peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart.
In the 2001 movie Ali, Smith played heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali. He received nominations for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. After a four-year break from music, Smith made a comeback in 2002 with his third album Born to Reign, which peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and was given a gold certification by the RIAA. The album’s lead track, “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head),” which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart, was the theme song from Smith’s Men in Black II movie. Smith’s first greatest hits album, which included tracks from his three solo albums as well as those created with DJ Jazzy Jeff, was released later that year.
Smith made a comeback with 2003’s Bad Boys II, the follow-up to the 1995 movie Bad Boys, which follows detectives Burnett and Lowrey as they look into the entry of ecstasy into Miami. Despite garnering mostly unfavorable reviews, the movie was a box office hit, earning $270 million globally. The science fiction movie I, Robot and the animation movie Shark Tale he appeared in the following year were both commercial triumphs despite receiving mixed reviews. 2005 saw the release of Smith’s most recent album, Lost and Found, which peaked at number six on the Billboard 200.
The lead track “Switch” peaked in the top ten of both the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100. Smith made history in 2005 when he attended three premieres in a 24-hour period, earning him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. In the 2006 biographical drama The Pursuit of Happiness, Smith and his son Jaden portrayed father and son. Smith plays Chris Gardner in the movie. Gardner appeared on 20/20, where Smith originally developed an interest in making a movie about him. Smith later grew close to Gardner while filming the movie. Smith’s acting and the movie both won accolades.
Smith received recognition at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on December 10, 2007. In front of a large crowd of fans, Smith’s hands and feet were visible outside the auditorium. Smith appeared in the movie I Am Legend, which was released on December 14, 2007, later that month. Its opening was the biggest ever for a movie released in the United States during December, although it received only moderately favorable reviews. Smith has stated that he thinks the movie is “aggressively unique.”
The movie’s commercial success, according to a review, “cemented [Smith’s] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood.” For a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008, TV Guide revealed on December 1 that Smith had been chosen as one of America’s top ten most fascinating individuals of the year.
2008–2019: Blockbusters and critical disappointments
Smith was said to be working on a movie called The Last Pharaoh in 2008, in which he would play Taharqa. Later, Smith starred in the superhero film Hancock, which earned $624,386,746 globally and $227,946,274 in the United States and Canada. Smith went to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to begin production on his fifth studio album, it was revealed on August 19, 2011.
Smith played Agent J once more in Men in Black 3, which debuted on May 25, 2012; this was his first significant starring role in four years. After the movie’s debut, Smith declared that he was happy to have finished working on the franchise, adding, “I think three is enough for me. For me, three of anything is sufficient. We’ll examine it and give it some thought, but it seems like the timing would be right to delegate that task to someone else. Ten years after Men in Black II (2002), Men in Black 3 made over $624 million worldwide. It is the series’ highest-grossing movie when inflation is not taken into account.
Smith and his son Jaden co-starred in the 2013 film After Earth. The movie received negative reviews and had a poor domestic box office performance. Smith ended up taking a year and a half vacation as a result, calling the movie “the most painful failure in my career.”
Focus, which was released on February 27, 2015, featured Smith in a lead role opposite Margot Robbie. He portrayed Nicky Spurgeon, a seasoned con guy who takes in a young, attractive woman. Smith was scheduled to act in the sci-fi thriller Brilliance, a David Koepp-penned adaptation of Marcus Sakey’s same-titled book, but he opted to work on the Ridley Scott-produced sports film Concussion instead.
Smith portrayed Dr. Bennet Omalu of the Brain Injury Research Institute in the movie Concussion, who was the first to identify chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Early in the film’s development, Smith admitted he had his concerns, saying, “Some of my best memories are of seeing my son catch and toss a football. I didn’t want to be the filmmaker who made a movie suggesting that football could be risky. When Smith met Omalu, whose remarks about American ideals struck a chord with him, these opinions began to change. Smith received appreciation for his “sensitive [and] understated” performance.
In the 2016 supervillain team-up action movie Suicide Squad, Smith portrayed Deadshot. Smith chose to be a part of the movie over one in Independence Day: Resurgence because he felt that would be like “clinging and clawing backwards.” Even though the movie Suicide Squad made over $700 million at the box office, critics gave the movie unfavorable reviews. The most recent entry in the DC Comics superhero universe, according to Christopher Orr, “may be the most disastrous yet.”
Later same year, Smith portrayed a New York advertising executive who succumbs to a profound depression following a personal tragedy in David Frankel’s drama Collateral Beauty. His father was given the cancer diagnosis a few weeks after Smith signed on for the movie; he passed away from the disease in 2016. He was brought closer to the senior Smith since his job compelled him to research about religion and the afterlife. He described the experience as “a beautiful way to prepare for a movie and an even more majestic way to say goodbye to my father.”
Will Smith’s career-lowest box office debut was for this movie. Additionally, the movie received almost exclusively unfavorable reviews from critics. David Rooney, a critic for the Hollywood Reporter, called Smith’s performance writing “the least interesting element in a madly overqualified cast.”
Netflix released his movie Bright on December 22, 2017. It was an urban fantasy and Netflix’s most expensive movie to date. Smith worked along with David Ayer, the Suicide Squad director. Smith would experience yet another setback as a result of the negative reviews that the film received. By the time Will Smith barks [the line, “Dude, you can’t go through elf town!”] with 100 percent urgency and sincerity in the bizarre mess that is “Bright,” it is obvious we are watching a truly terrible, mountainous pile of genre-blending garbage, according to Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times.
Along with launching his own YouTube channel, Smith also released the song “Get Lit” in 2017, a joint effort with Jazzy Jeff, a former bandmate. As of July 2019, the channel has over 6 million subscribers and 294 million total views.
At the 2018 FIFA World Cup’s closing ceremony in Moscow, Russia, Smith sang the official song “Live It Up” alongside American artist Nicky Jam and Kosovar singer Era Istrefi. Smith and Bad Bunny both made an appearance on Marc Anthony’s song “Está Rico” in September of that year.
In the live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin, which was directed by Guy Ritchie, Smith took on the role of The Genie, which was originally voiced by Robin Williams. He also contributed to the soundtracks by recording the tunes “Friend Like Me,” “Prince Ali,” and “Arabian Nights (2019)”. The movie was made available on May 24, 2019. Aladdin outperformed Independence Day to become Smith’s highest-grossing movie with over $1 billion in global box office receipts. The 2019 song “Don’t Be Afraid To Be Different” from rapper Logic’s fifth studio album Confessions of a Dangerous Mind also features Smith.
Smith starred in Ang Lee’s Gemini Man, which came out on October 11, 2019, as an assassin who battles a younger version of himself. Critics gave the movie poor ratings, and it bombed at the box office. In his article for Variety, Peter DeBruge referred to the movie as “a high-concept misfire” and stated that it had been “nearly impossible to get the project made, passing through the hands of countless actors and falling through multiple times because the technology wasn’t there.” At least that has been the justification, but based on the final product, the script never lived up to its initial promise.
Later that year, opposite Tom Holland in the animated picture Spies in Disguise, Smith received his second leading role. Lance Sterling, a spy who works with the geeky inventor who makes his gadgets (Holland), was voiced by Smith. He reconnected with Martin Lawrence in 2020 to work on Bad Boys for Life, the third installment of their trilogy. In 2019, Smith made a $46 million investment in the esports group Gen. G through his Dreamers Fund, which he and Keisuke Honda co-founded. In June 2020, it was revealed that Smith would play Peter, a runaway slave who outwits hunters and the Louisiana swamp on a voyage to the Union Army, in Antoine Fuqua’s film Emancipation.
2020–present: Memoir and King Richard
Will, penned by Smith and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck author Mark Manson, was released on November 9, 2021, and it was supported by a promotional tour. The book is a journey of self-discovery that recalls his experiences with ayahuasca, his relationship with his father, and his childhood traumas. He and his Westbrook Studios business agreed to a partnership with National Geographic the same year.
In the 2021 movie King Richard, Smith played Richard Williams, the father and tennis instructor of Venus and Serena Williams. He received recognition for his work with the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Smith will play the lead in the Pole to Pole television series, which will air on Disney+, according to a National Geographic announcement made on February 7, 2022. The program will follow Smith and his film crew as they travel 26,000 miles (42,000 km) from the South Pole to the North Pole, passing through every biome on the planet and stopping in towns along the way.
2022 Oscars confrontation
On March 27, 2022, during the 94th Academy Awards, Chris Rock, a presenter, made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head while making a reference to the main character in the movie G.I. Jane. Smith stepped onstage and smacked Rock. Once again standing, Smith shouted at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” twice. After receiving an alopecia areata diagnosis in 2018, Pinkett Smith decided to shave her head to treat the illness. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), but he refused.
Later that evening, Smith was elected Best Actor for King Richard. In his victory speech, he expressed regret to the Academy and the other nominees but not to Rock. Smith apologized in writing in a public Instagram post after receiving criticism from the general public. Following the incident, ABC, AMPAS, and the Screen Actors Guild all denounced Smith, which prompted the Academy’s Board of Governors to launch an investigation. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Rock chose not to file a police report against Smith. Smith submitted his retirement from the Academy on April 1, 2022, writing in part:
I denied other nominees and winners the chance to honor and be honored for their outstanding efforts. I’m devastated. I want to shift the spotlight back to those who merit recognition for their accomplishments and give the Academy the chance to resume the amazing work it does to encourage originality and artistic expression in film. I am leaving the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a result, and I agree to take any further action the Board deems necessary.
In a formal statement, AMPAS President David Rubin accepted the resignation but stated that the organization will keep looking into it. Because of his resignation from the Academy, Smith is no longer eligible to vote on Oscar nominations. The slap’s aftermath, including Smith’s resignation from the Academy, has sparked rumors that Smith’s “family brand” may suffer.
The Academy decided to bar Smith from future Oscars galas and related events for a decade on April 8, 2022, when they made their decision public. The incident caused Smith’s involvement in a number of cinematic projects to be placed on hold. Smith told CNN in a statement that “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision.” In a nutshell, he said, “I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry.”
Will Smith Personal life
Relationships and family
In 1992, Smith wed Sheree Zampino. On November 11, 1992, their son Willard Carroll “Trey” Smith III was born. In 1995, the two were divorced. Trey had an appearance in his father’s 1998 song “Just the Two of Us” music video. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the David Blaine: Real or Magic TV special, and acted in two episodes of the sitcom All of Us.
On December 31, 1997, Smith tied the knot with the actress Jada Koren Pinkett. When Pinkett went on a casting call for the part of Smith’s character’s girlfriend in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, they connected. Through their joint production firm Overbrook Entertainment and Westbrook Inc., the couple makes movies. Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth, was born in 1998. Willow Camille Reign Smith, who played his daughter in I Am Legend, was born in 2000.
Smith and his wife Jada have atypical marital habits and jokingly refer to their union as a “bad marriage for life.” He and Pinkett Smith both acknowledged having extramarital relationships and supporting the right to do so. Smith claimed to have desired a polyamorous union with Misty Copeland and actress Halle Berry, but after going through counseling, he gave up the concept.
Will Smith Business
Smith’s family resides in Los Angeles, California, and he and his brother Harry are the owners of Treyball Development Inc., a business with offices in Beverly Hills with Trey Smith as its namesake. Smith performed a bungee leap from a helicopter in the Grand Canyon to mark his 50th birthday in 2018. Smith’s jump, which earned money for the nonprofit Global Citizen, was covered by a $200 million insurance policy from Lloyd’s of London.
Will Smith Religious and political views
Smith was brought up in a Baptist home but went to a Roman Catholic church and school. He claimed he did not identify as religious in an interview from 2013. In a 2015 interview with The Christian Post, Smith stated that his grandmother’s instillation of the Christian faith in him helped him to portray Bennet Omalu in Concussion accurately. Smith said of his grandmother: “She was my spiritual teacher; she was that grandmother at the church, the one having the kids do the Easter presentations and putting on the Christmas plays and her kids and grandkids had to be first. In my entire life, she was the person I had ever encountered who was the most spiritually assured.
Even to the point of being joyful as she passed away because she was so eager to enter paradise. Smith participated in the Hindu ritual of Shiva’s abhisheka in Haridwar, India, in 2018. Additionally, he did an arti for the revered Ganga. He has stated that he has a strong affinity for Hinduism and Indian astrology. Smith said he and his family spent time with Sadhguru, an Indian spiritual leader, and that he loved their sincere chats.
Smith contributed $4,600 to Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Smith and his wife organized the Nobel Peace Prize Concert on December 11, 2009, in Oslo, Norway, to commemorate Obama’s winning the award. Smith declared his support for same-sex marriage in 2012. Smith revealed in 2021 that the shooting of his upcoming movie, Emancipation, would no longer take place in Georgia, a state in the United States, due to the enactment of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which detractors perceived as a restrictive voting law that would harm non-white voters. “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access,” Smith and filmmaker Antoine Fuqua said in a joint statement.
Will Smith Public image and legacy
Smith has frequently been credited with attaining ground-breaking success in both his acting and musical careers as well as in both television and movies. Numerous magazines have listed him as one of the “greatest actors” of his time. He was described as the “biggest movie star of the post-9/11 era” by Forbes. He is recognized by Complex as a pioneer for the rappers making the crossover from music to acting, having inspired several rappers to follow in his footsteps. He was named one of the 100 most influential persons in the world by Time in 2006, and one of the 75 most influential individuals of the twenty-first century by Esquire in 2008.
Will Smith Musical artistry and impact
When the song “Parents Just Don’t Understand” triumphed in the first-ever rap categories at both award show ceremonies, his efforts as a member of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince made them the first rap act to win a Grammy Award as well as the first to win an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video. He has been dubbed “one of the most important rappers of all time” by XXL. Big Willie Style, his debut solo album from 1997, is currently on the list of the best-selling rap albums of all time.
Will Smith Legacy on screen
Television
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which Smith starred in to start his acting career, is widely regarded as one of the “Greatest Sitcoms of All Time” and its success is seen as a turning point for Hip-Hop and Black television. According to Professor Andrew Horton, “Smith’s comic subgenre, made popular by the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, translated effectively to mainstream box office appeal. Hip-hop’s then-rising popularity was watered down and monetized by The Fresh Prince, who essentially predicted its eventual dominance on the American stage.
Additionally, according to author Willie Tolliver, “What The Fresh Prince did accomplish was to place Smith and his character Will in a setting of prosperity and promise, thus redefining the terms of his own Black identity. This social and cultural mobility is essential to Smith’s racial relevance, as will be shown time and time again; he advances the representation of Black men in unfamiliar settings at the same time as he was establishing himself in Hollywood.
Will Smith Film
Smith immediately rose to prominence as one of Hollywood’s most lucrative and bankable performers after starring in his directorial debut, Where the Day Takes You (1992).[168] With eight consecutive $100 million-plus hits at the US box office, he now holds the record.[169] Bright (2017), in which Smith portrayed Daryl, broke the record for the most-watched Netflix film ever in its first week and became the first major Hollywood production to forego a theatrical release in favor of a streaming platform for concurrent viewing by more than 100 million people worldwide.
Smith reportedly made $100 million for his performance as Agent J in Men in Black 3 (2012), making it the highest-paid movie job of all time. His roles in the films King Richard and Bright are also among the highest-paid roles of all time. Vijay, who performed a similar comedy acting in Varisu, was influenced by Smith’s comic acting in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In June 2020, his movie Emancipation (2022) was purchased by Apple Studios for $120 million, making it the most expensive film festival acquisition ever. Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2022, becoming him the fifth black actor to do it.
Will Smith Discography
- Big Willie Style (1997)
- Willennium (1999)
- Born to Reign (2002)
- Lost and Found (2005)
Will Smith Awards and nominations
Smith has won numerous honors throughout his career, including the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the biopic King Richard (2021) as Richard Williams, the successful father and coach of champion tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Smith also received Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Awards for the same role, as well as a producer nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He has previously received nominations for the Golden Globe Award (5; for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Concussion), the Academy Award (2; for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness), and the Screen Actors Guild Award (one; for The Pursuit of Happyness).
He was given the honorary César Award in 2005, nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical for Fela! that same year, and nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2021 for his work as a producer on Cobra Kai.
In addition to his work as an actor and behind-the-scenes performer on film and stage, Smith has dabbled in hip-hop with the release of a number of songs. Four of these songs earned him Grammy Awards: “Parents Just Don’t Understand” for Best Rap Performance, “Summertime” for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and “Men in Black” and “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” for Best Rap Solo Performance. The first two awards
He is one of few black performers to have received nominations for all four major US entertainment awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).
Will Smith’s early life?
He was brought up a Baptist and lived in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia. He has three siblings: twins Harry and Ellen, who are three years younger than him, and sister Pamela, who is four years older. Smith went to a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia called Our Lady of Lourdes.
Which country is Will Smith from?
Will Smith, real name Willard Carroll Smith, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 25, 1968. He is an American actor and musician whose charm and humor allowed him to successfully make the switch from rap music to acting.
How did Will Smith start his career?
Will Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1968, and he has since grown to be a household name in the entertainment industry. At the age of 16, Smith started his career in the entertainment business by singing rap songs with Jeff Townes. They quickly won two Grammy awards together.
Who is Will Smith to Jaden Smith?
Will welcomed son Trey, 31, daughter Willow, 22, and Jaden into the world during his first marriage to Sheree Zampino. Will told his fans years ago that Jaden wanted to file for emancipation, but he withheld the intimate details until his autobiography.
Did Will Smith’s first wife remarry?
Trey Smith, the couple’s son, was born during Sheree Zampino’s three-year marriage to Will Smith. Both went on to wed new partners; Zampino wed former NFL player Terrell Fletcher in 2007 (although they later separated in 2014), while Smith wed actress Jada Pinkett Smith in December 1997.
How Will Smith has changed the world?
Will Smith established the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, to support inner-city community development, youth educational initiatives, and underprivileged kids and their families. in George, South Africa, hosted the Nelson Mandela AIDS fundraiser concert.
What’s the religion of Will Smith?
He was brought up a Baptist and lived in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia.
What age did Will Smith become famous?
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was the next television program in which Will Smith appeared. Thus, when this show debuted in 1990, when the actor was just 22 years old, his acting career officially began. Will Smith’s acting career was launched by the show’s enormous popularity among viewers.
