Willow Smith

Willow Camille Reign Smith, known mononymously as Willow, is an American musician and actress. Born on October 31, 2000, in Los Angeles, California, she is the daughter of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. First gaining prominence as a child actress, she later built a music career spanning art pop, alternative rock, jazz, R&B, funk, and pop-punk.

Willow grew up alongside her elder brothers, actor-musicians Trey Smith and Jaden Smith. As children, the siblings served as youth ambassadors for Project Zambia, an initiative created with Hasbro to assist Zambian children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Willow attended Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles and began her acting career alongside her father in the 2007 feature film I Am Legend. She subsequently appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, voiced young Gloria in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and held a recurring role in the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP from 2009 to 2010.

In 2010, Willow signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation as the label's youngest artist and released her debut single, "Whip My Hair." The song reached number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the United Kingdom, earning a 3× platinum certification from the RIAA. She released follow-up singles including "21st Century Girl" and "Fireball," a collaboration with rapper Nicki Minaj. In 2013, she formed the duo Melodic Chaotic with DJ Fabrega, releasing "Summer Fling" as she began shifting away from commercial pop.

Willow spent the mid-to-late 2010s exploring independent and experimental styles. After releasing her debut EP, 3, in 2014, she released her debut album, Ardipithecus, through Roc Nation and Interscope Records in 2015. The album included the song "Wait a Minute!", which later went viral on TikTok and became certified 2× platinum by the RIAA. She released her second album, The 1st, in 2017, followed by her self-titled third album in 2019. In 2020, she released the collaborative album The Anxiety with Tyler Cole, which yielded the viral hit single "Meet Me at Our Spot."

In 2021, Willow transitioned into pop-punk with the platinum-certified single "Transparent Soul," featuring Travis Barker, and her fourth album, Lately I Feel Everything. The album received critical acclaim and appeared on numerous year-end best-of lists. Her fifth album, Coping Mechanism (2022), continued exploring heavier rock styles. That year, Time named Willow one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Billboard named her its Comeback Artist of the Year for 2021.

Willow later incorporated jazz, funk, and experimental influences into her music. After signing with Three Six Zero and Gamma, she released her sixth album, Empathogen, in 2024, which received two Grammy Award nominations. She released her seventh album, Petal Rock Black, and her eighth album, The Thread, in 2026. She has also toured internationally as a supporting act for Childish Gambino in 2024 and Coldplay in 2025.

From 2018 to 2023, Willow co-hosted the Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk alongside her mother and grandmother, winning a Daytime Emmy Award in 2021. She also co-authored the historical fantasy novel Black Shield Maiden, published in 2024. In her personal life, Willow is a practicing Hindu who follows the ISKCON tradition.