Will Smith

Willard Carroll Smith II, born September 25, 1968, is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. He has achieved widespread success across both the music and film industries, with his leading screen roles grossing over $10 billion worldwide. His major honors include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and four Grammy Awards.

Smith was raised in the Wynnefield neighborhood of West Philadelphia in a Baptist household. His mother, Caroline, worked as a school board administrator, and his father, Willard Carroll Smith Sr., was a U.S. Air Force veteran and refrigeration engineer. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school and Overbrook High School. He grew up alongside an older sister, Pamela, and younger twin siblings, Harry and Ellen. After his grandmother left him a note encouraging him to express himself without curse words, Smith adopted a clean, light-hearted storytelling style in his music.

In 1985, Smith formed the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with Jeffrey Townes. The group released their debut album, Rock the House, in 1987 and won the first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand." They earned a second Grammy Award for their 1991 hit single "Summertime." Following financial difficulties related to unpaid taxes, Smith signed with NBC in 1990 to star as a fictionalized version of himself on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran until 1996 and earned Smith two Golden Globe Awards.

During the late 1990s, Smith launched a solo recording career and established himself as a major movie star. His debut solo album, Big Willie Style (1997), yielded his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "Gettin' Jiggy wit It." He released subsequent solo projects, including Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002), Lost and Found (2005), and Based on a True Story (2025). On screen, he achieved major box-office success with leading roles in the action film Bad Boys (1995), the blockbuster Independence Day (1996), and the science-fiction comedy Men in Black (1997).

Smith continued as a prominent Hollywood headliner through the 2000s and 2010s, starring in projects such as Enemy of the State (1998), I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016), and Aladdin (2019). He earned Best Actor Academy Award nominations for portraying boxer Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001) and Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), ultimately winning the award for his role as Richard Williams in King Richard (2021).

At the 94th Academy Awards, Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock following an unscripted joke regarding Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The incident received extensive global media coverage and led to Smith resigning from the Academy, along with receiving a ten-year ban from attending its events.