Jada Pinkett Smith

Lore & Background

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jada Koren Pinkett was named after her mother's favorite soap opera actress, Jada Rowland. She is of Jamaican and Bajan descent on her mother's side and Black-American descent on her father's side. Her parents are Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the head nurse of a Baltimore inner-city clinic, and Robsol Pinkett Jr., who ran a construction company. Banfield-Norris became pregnant in high school, and the couple married but divorced after several months.

Pinkett was raised by her mother and grandmother, Marion Martin Banfield, a Jamaican-born social worker who was married to Gilbert Banfield, a family medicine physician. She attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she studied acting and dance and became close friends with classmate and rapper Tupac Shakur. She graduated in 1989. After graduation, she spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a drama major.

Reader's Guide

Pinkett began her acting career in 1990 with an episode of True Colors. She received guest roles on Doogie Howser, M.D. (1991) and 21 Jump Street (1991), and earned a role on A Different World in 1991 as college freshman Lena James. In 1993, she appeared in her first film, Menace II Society, after a recommendation from her friend Tupac Shakur got her cast as single mother Ronnie. Shakur was also set to appear in the film before he was fired.

Pinkett considered dropping out after Shakur's departure but he convinced her to keep the role. She later starred in films such as Jason's Lyric (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996), Set It Off (1996), and Scream 2 (1997). In the 2000s, she was lead vocalist of the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom. In 2005, she published a children's book, Girls Hold Up This World, which landed at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list.

With her husband Will Smith, she founded Westbrook in 2019. In 2010, she earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical as a producer for Fela!.