From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on
Living Single, a
FOX sitcom; she also wrote and performed its theme music. She began her film career in a supporting role in the 1991 films
House Party 2,
Juice, and
Jungle Fever.
Latifah first attracted notice for her role portraying a
lesbian in the 1996 box-office hit,
Set It Off and subsequently had a supporting role in the
Holly Hunter film
Living Out Loud (1998). She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie adaptation of Jeffrey Deavers'
The Bone Collector, alongside
Denzel Washington and
Angelina Jolie. Although she had already received some critical acclaim, she gained mainstream success after being cast as Matron "Mama" Morton in the Oscar-winning musical
Chicago, the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar. Latifah received an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role, but lost to co-star
Catherine Zeta-Jones. In 2003, she starred with
Steve Martin in the film
Bringing Down the House, which was a major success at the box office. Since then, she has had both leading and supporting roles in a multitude of films that received varied critical and box office receptions, including
Scary Movie 3,
Barbershop 2: Back in Business,
Taxi,
Kung Faux, and
Beauty Shop.
In early 2006, Latifah appeared in a romantic comedy/drama entitled
Last Holiday. Film critic
Richard Roeper stated that "this is the Queen Latifah performance I've been waiting for ever since she broke into movies". Also in 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly
mammoth, in the animated film,
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (her first voice appearance in an animated film), and also appeared in the drama
Stranger Than Fiction.
She has starred in two movie remakes (
Taxi and
Last Holiday), four sequels (
House Party 2,
Scary Movie 3,
Barbershop 2: Back in Business and
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown), 1 Spinoff (
Beauty Shop), 1 movie based on a book (
The Bone Collector), and two screen adaptations of musicals (
Chicago) and (
Hairspray). In regards to the difference between rap and musicals, Queen admits that she grew up watching musicals and singing in that style. "What the hell was I going to do," she revealed to CraveOnline, "it wasn't like I was going to perform much of that... but now it's all paying off because here come the musicals again and I get a chance to have some fun with a lot of these songs".
The summer of 2007 has brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit
Hairspray, in which she acts, sings, and dances. The film has rated highly with critics and stars, among others,
John Travolta and
Christopher Walken. Also in 2007, she received an
Emmy nomination for her work on the TV movie
Life Support.
Latifah produced the upcoming film
The Perfect Holiday penned by Marc Calixte and Lance Rivera in
Westfield, NJ. Along with producing the film Latifah stars alongside
Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Charles Q. Murphy, Jill Marie Jones, and
Faizon Love in the movie.
