Will Smith

WILL SMITH
 
 
Will Smith  (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, rapper, comedian, and songwriter.  In April 2007, Newsweek called him “the most powerful actor in Hollywood”.  Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.  In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince.  In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular NBC television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for six seasons until 1996.  After the series ended, Smith transitioned from television to film, and has gone on to star in numerous blockbuster films.  He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office.  Smith has been ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes.  As of 2014, 17 of the 21 films in which he has had leading roles have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million each, with five taking in over $500 million each in global box office receipts.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
In the wake of the gangsta rap era, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – Jeff Townes and Will Smith, respectively – were one of the first groups to try to tone things down with messages more suitable for teens.  Their second album, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1988) was a multi-platinum smash; the charming video for their hit song, “Parents Just Don’t Understand” was in heavy rotation on MTV.  The duo had had an earlier hit in the same vein called “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble” (1986) while Will Smith was still in high school. 
 
Will Smith parlayed their hit song into a stint on a sitcom called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and later became one of the biggest movie stars of our time following roles in summer blockbusters like Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997).  He is not the only hip hop star to move to the small and/or big screen.  Ice Cube, one of the founders of gangsta rap in his group N.W.A., has starred in numerous films in a variety of genres, such as All About the Benjamins, Barbershop, and XXX: State of the Union.  Ice-T – whose debut album Rhyme Pays (1987) was “the first hip hop album to carry an explicit content sticker” (according to Wikipedia) – is well-known for his prominent role in the long-running television series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. 
 
(September 2016)