Jada Pinkett Smith was born to Robson Pinkett Jr. and Adrienne Banfield in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was a contractor and her mother was a nurse. They divorced after only a few months of marriage. She majored in dance and choreography at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where one of her classmates was Tupac Shakur. She spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts before dropping out to pursue her career in acting. Her big break came in 1991 when she was cast in the part of a college frosh on the television sitcom A Different World. She made her feature film debut two years later in Menace II Society. She did not gain widespread recognition, however, until her role opposite Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor. In addition to being in front of the camera, she has spent time behind it directing music videos. She has also created Maja, a line of women's T-shirts and dresses that are mostly sold through small catalogs. Pinkett-Smith is married to Will Smith, and they have a son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith; and a daughter, Willow Camille Reign Smith.



She attended Baltimore's School of Arts at the same time as Tupac Shakur, where they became close friends. They made a video together at the amusement park King's Dominion, where they lip-synced to Will Smith's & Jeffrey A. Townes's "Parents Just Don't Understand." Tupac acts like an MC, and Jada acts like a dancer. In 2000, she was voted by the readers of Black Men Magazine as one of the 10 sexiest women of the year. Has been with Will Smith since 1995, two years before their marriage. Mother to son, Christopher Syre Smith (Jaden Smith) born July 8, 1998 and daughter, Willow Camille Reign Smith (Willow Smith) born October 31, 2000 with husband, Will Smith. Sent director Wes Craven a set of steak knives after appearing in Craven's film, Scream 2 (1997). Lead singer of the pop/rock band Wicked Wisdom. Wicked Wisdom is well-known for being both mainstream pop and brutal heavy metal. Has been good friends with Carrie-Anne Moss since the filming of The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). She and Will Smith were forced to leave their home in California, because a bush fire threatened to destroy it and several other houses in that area. [October 2005] Sister of Caleeb Pinkett. Step-mother of Trey Smith Will's son with his first wife Sheree. She is of Native American descent specifically Cherokee.