Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is a rapper and actor from the United States. He has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and four Grammys. His films have made over $9.3 billion internationally as of 2023, making him one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars.
Smith began his acting career on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996) as a fictionalized version of himself. From 1984 until 1994, he was a member of a hip hop duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff, with whom he released five studio albums and the top 20 US Billboard Hot 100 singles “Parents Just Don’t Understand”, “A Nightmare on My Street”, “Summertime”, “Ring My Bell”, and “Boom! Shake the Room”. Big Willie Style (1997), Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002), and Lost and Found (2005) were his solo albums, and they included the number-one singles “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” and “Wild Wild West” in the United States. For his rap performances, he has garnered four Grammy Awards.
Smith rose to prominence as a leading man in films such as Bad Boys (1995), Bad Boys II (2003), and Bad Boys for Life (2020), as well as the sci-fi comedies Men in Black (1997), Men in Black II (2002), and Men in Black 3 (2012). Following his roles in the thrillers Independence Day (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001) and Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happiness (2006). Following that, he appeared in a number of commercially successful films, including I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016), and Aladdin (2019).