Who

Generously proportioned and sexually ambiguous, Queen Latifah has made almost as many good rap albums as she has terrible films.

Backstory

Before assuming her royal title, Queen Latifah was known as plain old Dana Owens of Newark, New Jersey. The daughter of a cop, Latifah flipped burgers at Burger King as a teenager and performed with a series of little known rap acts. She began her ascent to the throne when she was discovered and signed to Tommy Boy Records in 1988; a year later, she released a debut single, "Wrath of My Madness," and her first album, All Hail the Queen, which went platinum. But it was her third CD, 1993's Black Reign, that cinched her reputation as the first true breakout female rapper. The album yielded the Grammy-winning, provocatively feminist single U.N.I.T.Y.—an early musical condemnation of misogyny-infested rap lyrics—featuring the refrain "Who you callin' a Bitch?"

Of note

The ur-lady rapper is still busting rhymes, and now has six studio albums to her name, including 1998's Order in the Court, 2004's jazzy change of pace The Dana Owens Album, and 2007's Trav'lin' Light, her most commercially successful record to date. But Latifah's energies have been directed more toward movies than music for some time. She began to transition to acting in the mid-'90s, appearing in TV shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Living Single; she later landed more substantial parts in films like 1996's Set It Off (in which she played a lesbian, a role that no doubt required a wild leap of imagination on her part), 1998's Living Out Loud, and 1999's The Bone Collector. Several of her performances earned positive notices, which suggests she does indeed have talent—the Academy handed her a Best Supporting Actress nom for her turn as Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago in 2002, and she won a Golden Globe for playing an HIV-positive woman in the 2007 HBO movie Life Support. But for the most part Latifah has demonstrated a knack for picking lousy projects. Some of the many stains on her IMDb profile include Beauty Shop, Scary Movie 3, and the criminally horrendous Taxi, with Jimmy Fallon.

Legal file

Being a royal doesn't exempt Latifah from the law. Early in her career, she was booked on assault, gun, and drug possession charges. In 2002, she was arrested in LA on DUI charges. She pleaded no contest, paid a $300 fine, and was sentenced to three years of probation.

Personal

Latifah remains publicly mum about her sexual orientation, but she's been romantically linked to her trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, for several years. An occasional customer at Scores (where she's been spotted getting lap dances in the champagne room), Latifah was previously rumored to be dating MC Lyte and boxer Laila Ali. She divides her time between a home in LA and one in Wayne, NJ, where she keeps her collection of cars including a '65 Mustang, '71 Cutlass, and a ride customized by DJ Funkmaster Flex.

True story

Her brother Lance Owens died in a 1992 accident while riding a motorcycle she'd given him. She still wears the bike's key around her neck in tribute.