Dana Elaine Owens (𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and producer.

Owens was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in Newark, New Jersey. She attended Es𝓈ℯ𝓍 Catholic Girls’ High School in Irvington, but graduated from Irvington High School. Always tall, the 5-foot-10-inch (1.78 m) Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team.

She signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album All Hail the Queen on November 28, 1989, featuring the hit single “Ladies First”. Nature of a Sista’ (1991) was her second and final album with Tommy Boy Records.In her music career, Queen Latifah has sold nearly 2 million records worldwide. Her third album, Black Reign (1993), spawned the single “U.N.I.T.Y.”, which, being a large influence on women, won a Grammy Award and peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

She has been dubbed as the “Queen of Jazz-Rap”. She became the first female hip-hop recording artist to get nominated for an Oscar. The Root ranked her at number 35 on The Root 100 list. Latifah was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011. She is a recipient of a Grammy Award, with six nominations, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, with two nominations, two NAACP Image Awards, including thirteen nominations, one Emmy Award, with three nominations and an Academy Award nomination. Queen Latifah became an influence to R&B, soul, and hip-hop artists, such as Eve, Da Brat, Lil’ Kim, Fugees, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, Remy Ma, Ivy Queen, Foxy Brown, Ms. Dynamite, and Naughty by Nature.

Latifah starred as Khadijah James on the FOX sitcom Living Single from 1993 to 1998. She also starred in the lead role of Set It Off (1996).She created the daytime talk show The Queen Latifah Show, which ran from late 2013 to early 2015 on CBS. She has appeared in a number of films, such as Bringing Down the House (2003), Taxi (2004), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2005), Beauty Shop (2005), Last Holiday (2006), Hairspray (2007), Joyful Noise (2012), 22 Jump Street (2014) and Girls Trip (2017).

Latifah received critical acclaim for her portrayal of blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO film Bessie (2015), which she co-produced, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. Since 2016, she has starred as Carlotta Brown in the musical drama series Star.