African Celebrities: Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She was born on September 12, 1981, in Chicago, Illinois. She is the third and youngest child of Darnell Donnerson and Samuel Simpson.

Jennifer Hudson attended Dunbar Vocational High School, from which she graduated in 1999. At the age of 7 she got her start in performing by singing with the church choir and doing community theater with the help of her late maternal grandmother, Julia.

Jennifer Hudson rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol, coming in seventh place. She made her film debut in Dreamgirls (2006), which won her an Academy Award for Best supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She won a Grammy Award for her eponymous debut album, Jennifer Hudson, which was released in 2008 on Arista Records and was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 800,000 copies in the U.S. Her second album, I Remember Me, was released in March 2011, and reached number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, for shipping over 500,000 copies in the U.S.

In October 2008, Jennifer Hudson's mother, Darnell Donnerson, brother Jason and nephew were killed in a shooting.

In September 2008, Jennifer Hudson was engaged to David Otunga, a professional wrestler in the WWE and a Havard Law graduate. The couple have one son named David Daniel Otunga Jr. who was born in August 2009.