African Celebrities: Queen Latifah

Dana Elaine Owens better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, model, television producer, record producer, comedienne, and talk show hostes.

Queen Latifah was born on March 18, 1970 in Newark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita Bray, a teacher at Irvington High School and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer. Her parents divorced when Queen Latifah was ten. She was raised in the Baptist faith and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey. Her stage name, Latifah, meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Arabic book of names when she was eight.

Her work in music, film, and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.

Queen Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig. She represents her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the CoverGirl Queen Collection. She has also launched a perfume line called "Queen" and "Queen of Hearts".

In June 2011, Queen Latifah received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from Delaware State University in Dover Delaware.

Queen Latifah's older brother, Lancelot Jr., was killed in 1992 in accident involving a motorcycle that Queen Latifah had recently bought him. She still wears the key to the motorcycle around her neck. She also dedicated her song Black reign to him.