Birth Name: Jada Koren Pinkett
Birth Date: September 18, 1971
Birth Place: Baltimore, Maryland
Height: 5' 0"
Education: Baltimore School of the Arts (dance and choreography )
Parents: Adrienne Banfield (nurse); Robson Pinkett, Jr. (contracter)
Husband: Will Smith (December 31,1997)
Children: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith
(July 8,1998); Willion Camille Reign Smith
(October 31,2000)
Voted: Miss Maryland (1988)
Claim to Fame: Lena James on A Different World (1991)
Niobe in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Jada Pinkett once claimed that she wanted to either be an actress or a lawyer; both professions would have offered her an opportunity to perform before crowds. Acting won out, and Pinkett, a native of Baltimore, where she was born on September 18, 1971, trained at the Baltimore School of the Arts and the North Carolina School of the Arts. She got her first break in 1991, when she was cast as saucy and sassy college freshman Lena James on the Bill Cosby-produced sitcom A Different World. Tiny in stature (barely five feet) but a giant talent-wise, Pinkett went on to become one of the most in-demand black leading ladies in Hollywood, with roles in Menace II Society (1993), The Inkwell (1994), Jason's Lyric (1994), A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994), and Eddie Murphy's popular 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor.

In 1997, Pinkett had a small but memorable role at the beginning of Wes Craven's Scream 2, in which she played a very vocal date with mixed feelings about seeing a slasher movie with her boyfriend. The following year, in addition to starring in the comedy Woo and appearing as a newspaper reporter in Return to Paradise, she gave birth to a son fathered by popular actor and musician Will Smith, whom she had married in December of 1997. Pinkett returned to the screen in 2000 to star in Bamboozled, the latest offering from Spike Lee.

Articles & Interviews
USA Weekend "JADA" April 15, 2001
E! Q&A "Mrs. Smith goes on the record about wooing Will--and, well, just Woo"

Filmography
Matrix Revolutions, The (2003) .... Niobe
Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) .... Niobe
Ali (2001) .... Sonji
Kingdom Come (2001/I) .... Charisse Slocumb
Bamboozled (2000) .... Sloan Hopkins
Welcome to Hollywood (1998) .... Herself
Woo (1998) .... Woo
Scream 2 (1997) (as Jada Pinkett) .... Maureen Evans
Set It Off (1996) .... Stony
Nutty Professor, The (1996) .... Professor Carla Purty
Demon Knight (1995) .... Jeryline
Inkwell, The (1994) .... Lauren Kelly
Jason's Lyric (1994) .... Lyric
Low Down Dirty Shame, A (1994) .... Peaches Jordan
Menace II Society (1993) .... Ronnie
"Different World, A" (1987) TV Series .... Lena James