Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx, born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas, is an American actor, comedian, singer, and film producer. Shortly after his birth, he was adopted and raised by his great aunt and uncle, Esther Marie and Mark Talley. Foxx began playing the piano at age five and had a strict Baptist upbringing, acting as a part-time pianist and choir leader in his youth. At Terrell High School, he earned top grades, played basketball and football, and sang in a band called Leather and Lace. He subsequently received a scholarship to United States International University, where he studied classical piano, music theory, and composition.

Foxx began performing stand-up comedy in 1989 after attending an open mic night on a dare. He adopted the stage name Jamie Foxx to disallow biases and in deference to comedian Redd Foxx. In 1991, he joined the cast of the sketch comedy show In Living Color, which marked his career breakthrough. Following a recurring role on the sitcom Roc, he co-created, produced, and starred in his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show, from 1996 to 2001. He made his feature film debut in the 1992 comedy Toys.

Foxx transitioned into dramatic roles with Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday (1999) and Michael Mann's Ali (2001). In 2004, he gained critical acclaim for his role as taxi driver Max Durocher in Collateral, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, Foxx portrayed Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray (2004), winning the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He became the third male actor in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different films.

Foxx subsequently expanded his film career, appearing in feature hits such as Jarhead (2005), Miami Vice (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), The Kingdom (2007), The Soloist (2009), and Law Abiding Citizen (2009). He starred in Horrible Bosses (2011) and portrayed the title character in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012). His later film roles include White House Down (2013), Annie (2014), Baby Driver (2017), Just Mercy (2019), and Soul (2020). He also played the character Electro in both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Alongside his screen work, Foxx established a successful R&B music career. After releasing his 1994 debut album Peep This, he earned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 via featured appearances on Twista's "Slow Jamz" and Kanye West's "Gold Digger." Foxx has released four studio albums that charted in the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200: Unpredictable (2005), which topped the chart, Intuition (2008), Best Night of My Life (2010), and Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (2015). His single "Blame It" won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

In 2007, Foxx launched the satellite radio channel The Foxxhole and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Since 2017, he has served as the host and executive producer of the Fox game show Beat Shazam. In 2021, he published his autobiography, Act Like You Got Some Sense.