Written by Ty Cole @tycoletv
Whether she was running her own magazine company to set it off on screen, Queen Latifah came to do her job and did it ever so effortlessly.
While Twitter continues to gawk over some of our Hollywood favorites and their acting performances, let’s chat about how Queen Latifah always “understood the assignment” and why she deserves her flowers more than ever. Let’s take it back to the beginning.
Courtesy of AceShowbiz.com
Dana Owens, known to the world as Queen Latifah, came through the industry swinging as a dominant force within the Hip Hop World. From classic hits like 'Ladies First' to'U.N.I.T.Y.', this Newark, New Jersey native was destined for greatness, beyond the microphone. While selling out shows and being the main attraction for the music fans, Queen Latifah would stumble across a new stage in the acting world, once again showing us why she is the Queen.
Living Single
While her career was jumping as Hip Hop’s leading lady, this Queen found her way into the hearts of fans every Thursday back in 1993 on the Fox sitcom, Living Single., playing the role of Khadijah James. Centered around 4 successful black women in a brownstone in Brooklyn, Queen Latifah proved that while her pen game was strong, so was her on-screen presence. During this time, it was very rare to see a woman of a thicker statue be placed as a lead character on primetime television without having a comedic approach to entertain the audience. Queen Latifah showed that she can be beautiful, thick, successful, and desired for 5 successful seasons, winning the rating wars as the fourth highest-rated show on the network. Khadijah James will forever be the cool, fly, independent woman that was ahead of her time. Khadijah James is what every woman in today’s time aspires and strives to be. Khadijah was the modern-day woman before the modern-day woman knew what a modern-day woman was.
Courtesy of IMDB .com
Set it Off
Setting it off in the television world, Queen Latifah continued to set the industry ablaze with another iconic role: Cleopatra “Cleo” Sims. Another cult classic under her belt, Queen Latifah, took her acting to a new level, playing a mouthy, ruthless bank robber, something the world was not used to seeing in Queen Latifah. To this day, the world reminsces on the iconic yet gruesome death of Queen Latifah’s character, making it one of the most emotional deaths in Hollywood history. Sharing the screen with some of Hollywood’s best like Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Kimberly Elise, these women showed that four leading black women once again can generate revenue and numbers. The film went on to become New Line Cinema’s highest grossing film in 1996, bringing in a whopping total of $41,590,886 worldwide.
Hairspray
Continuing her acting efforts, Queen Latifah landed one of her big roles to date, playing 'Motormouth' Maybelle Stubbs in the 2007 musical Hairspray, born off of the 2002 Broadway play. Beating out soul legend Aretha Franklin (which is a BIG deal), Queen Latifah went on to show her versatility as she was able to flex those jazz vocal chords, performing I Know Where I’ve Been, which was praised by her Hollywood peers. Her performance was not only outstanding but continues to be spoken about to this day. Her efforts alongside her costars helped the Broadway inspired film become a box office hit, grossing $203.5 million and becoming one of the most talked about musicals of all time.
Courtesy of IMDB .com
You can now see Queen Latifah in The Equalizer reboot, which airs on CBS, Sundays at 8:00PM EST/CT. The show recently earned an early renewal for a second season. So whether she is on center stage performing some of her Hip Hop/Jazz hits or on the big screen, the range Queen Latifah has is impeccable.
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