The bestQueen Latifahmovies and TV shows came after she had already established a solid career as a rapper in the early 1990s. Latifah released her debut album in 1989 when she was only 19 calledAll Hail the Queen, a release that topped out at sixth on the U.S. R&B and Hip-Hop Charts. By 1993, she had released three albums, with her third,Black Reign, certified gold and hitting 60th on the Billboard 200 albums chart. This led to her dipping her toes in Hollywood, and while she kept rapping, acting took the lead in her career.
Her first movie role actually came in 1991 when she was 21, and she took on asmall role in the Spike Lee movieJungle Feveras a waitress named Lashawn. This led to more movie roles before she enjoyed her breakout inthe 1993 television series,Living Single. After a five-season run on the show, her career exploded, with roles in movies likeBringing Down the House, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Last Holiday, Hairspray, Girl’s Trip, and her successful TV adaptation ofThe Equalizer.
Bringing Down the Houseallowed Queen Latifah to share the big screen with one of the world’s greatest comic actors, Steve Martin. In this film, Martin is Peter Sanderson, a workaholic tax attorney who is separated from his wife and has no time for his kids. He sets out on a blind date with a woman he has been talking to online. However, when the woman shows up, she is nothing like she looked like in their messages andis a felon who started chatting with him while she was in prison, lying the entire time.
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Queen Latifah plays Charlene Morton, the woman in question, and Peter offers to help her expunge her criminal record, but this creates new problems between him and his estranged wife (Jean Smart). The film received mostly poor reviews from critics, but audiences seemed to enjoy it as Queen Latifah received honors at the Teen Choice Awards (Choice Movie Actress Comedy) and the NAACP Image Awards (Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture). She also received an MTV Movie Award nomination.
Queen Latifah has starred in several TV shows over the years, and one that isn’t talked about as much is the music drama seriesStar. Airing on Fox from 2016 to 2019, the show follows three young singers who are seeking to become stars in the music industry. Those three musicians are Jude Demorest (Star Davis), Brittany O’Grady (Simone Davis-Rivera), and Ryan Destiny (Alex Crane Jones). Star Davis is the main character, an orphan who leaves her foster home and wants to make it in the world.
Queen Latifah stars in the Fox series as Carlotta Renee Brown, a woman who owns a beauty salon and worked with Star’s mother, Mary, in an R&B duo before she died. She serves as the surrogate mother of the three youngsters, although she doesn’t approve of their musical career aspirations. Co-created by Lee Daniels (Empire), the series lasted for three seasons and earned awards recognition at the Teen Choice Awards and GLAAD Media Awards.
Barbershopwas a successful comedy-drama starring Ice Cube as Calvin Palmer Jr., which followed a team of barbers at a local barber shop trying to survive the gentrification of South Chicago. The movie was a huge success and spawned a sequel that saw the introduction of a beauty shop next door where Calvin’s ex-lover Gina (Queen Latifah) works.The beauty shop women stole the show in the sequel,and they got a spin-off movie to themselves in 2005.
The cast ofBeauty Shopalso included Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Djimon Jounsou, Alfre Woodard, Andie MacDowell, and Kevin Bacon. The film didn’t have as much box office success, and it received mostly negative reviews. However, critics praised Queen Latifah’s lead performance, and she went on to want nominations at the Black Reel Awards, BET Awards, and the NAACP Awards. This also marked the end of the franchise until a thirdBarbershopmovie came out 11 years later.
In 2008, Queen Latifah took on the lead role in a drama movie calledThe Secret Life of Bees. The film stars Dakota Fanning as Lily Owens, a 14-year-old living with her abusive father (Paul Bettany), who often only finds compassion and love from her dad’s maid, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson). After some racists beat Rosaleen for trying to register to vote, she runs with Lily to the home of August Boatwright,a successful beekeeper, played by Queen Latifah.
The Secret Life of Beestakes place in the 1960s and focuses on segregation and hateful racism that often led to violence and more, with the film mostly showing this through the eyes of a child. However, it was Queen Latifah who received the highest praise for her role as the strong woman who not only refused to give in to racial prejudices but also fought to protect even young white girls like Lily and her mother before her. The film won Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.
Will Ferrell had a chance to take on a very different role when he starred in the Marc Forster fantasy comedyStranger Than Fictionin 2006. While Ferrell was mostly known at the time for his broad slapstick comedies likeAnchormanandTalladega Nights, this was a more nuanced comedy similar to the change that Jim Carrey attempted inEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. InStranger Than Fiction,Ferrell is Harold Crick, an IRS agent who realizes one day that he is a fictional character in a novel.
He realizes this when he suddenly hears the author’s narration in a voiceover — a narration that indicates that Harold will die. From here, Harold sets out to figure out how he can save himself and if there is even a reason to go on living knowing you are just a character in someone else’s story. The movie had a modest box office success and received mostly positive reviews.Queen Latifah stars as Penny, an assistanthelping the author finish the tragedy of Harold’s life.
In 2022, Adam Sandler continued his trend of making serious movies in between his broad comedies and released the sports dramaHustleon Netflix. The film stars Sandler as Stanley Sugerman, an international NBA court looking for players overseas. When he discovers a phenom in Spain, he offers him a chance to make it in the NBA and offers to represent him with a chance in the NBA Draft. After a lot of work,Sugarmen gets Bo Cruz into the NBA Draft Combine and secures his way back into the NBAas well.
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Queen Latifah stars as Teresa Sugerman, Stanley’s wife and the mother of his child. The struggles for Sugerman also include his travels keeping him away from his wife and child, and this is just as important as Bo’s attempts to make it in the NBA to do well by his family. The movie was released on Netflix and received universal acclaim, with a 93% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, and Latifah received a People’s Choice Award nomination for The Female Movie Star of 2022.
The Equalizeris an interesting franchise. It is one of the few that have movies and a TV show both in production concurrently, but with very different characters in the lead roles. Both are based on the classic 1980s series starring Edward Woodward as a former covert operations officer, Robert McCall, who now helps people in need. The movie has the same story, with Denzel Washington taking on the role of Robert. Meanwhile, the TV show has Queen Latifah in the role of Robyn McCall.Both Washington and Latifah are still making their movies/TV shows.
The Equalizer TV Show Actually Beats Denzel Washington’s Movies In One Big Way
The Equalizer’s TV series might not be as famous as Denzel Washington’s movie series, but it outdoes the franchise’s movies in one surprising way.
On the TV show, Latifah is a single mother who lives with her sister and has a team of two people helping her as people find her to ask for help by posting messages in a private internet chatroom. The TV series is a basic case-of-the-week format, although there is a lot of importance placed on family, and that has made it one of the more successful new TV shows of the 2020s. It is in its fifth season in the 2024-2025 television season.
3Ice Age Franchise (2006–Present)
Ellie (Voice)
In 2006, Queen Latifah joined theIce Agefranchise as a new character. This was the second movie in the franchise that started out with Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary starring as friends Manny (woolly mammoth), Sid (sloth), and Diego (smilodon) during the Ice Age. InIce Age: The Meltdown, Manny meets Ellie (Latifah), a woolly mammoth who believes she is a possum. However,Manny and Ellie connect, and the two end up marriedand having a child for future movies.
This led to Latifah returning inIce Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, where Ellie and Manny are raising their daughter Peaches. Queen Latifah has appeared in fourIce Agemovies, with a sixth coming in 2026. She also appeared in two TV specials. While not as beloved as other animated franchises likeDespicable MeandKung Fu Panda, theIce Agefranchise has still made over $3.2 billion at the box office. However, the last movie in the franchise was the worst box office take.
Chicago
Cast
Chicago is a musical crime film directed by Rob Marshall, set in 1920s Chicago. It centers on Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) and Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), two women who find themselves on trial for murder. Both aspiring performers, they vie for the attention of a high-profile lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), in their quest for fame and freedom. The film examines themes of celebrity, crime, and media influence.
Queen Latifah had a big role in the 2002 Oscar-winning movieChicago. The film, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, takes place during the Jazz Age in Chicago and follows the celebrities, scandals, and corruption of that era. Rob Marshall directs the movie, with Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Renée Zellweger in the lead roles. While not one of the three headlining stars,Queen Latifah still had a major role in the film as Mama Morton, the corrupt matron of the Cook County Jail.
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The film sees vaudeville star Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones) imprisoned for killing her husband and then a housewife named Roxie Hart (Zellweger) also ends up in jail for killing a man who tricked her into an affair. They then meet the infamous Mama Morton, who supervises the women on Murderess' Row. Latifah had two songs inChicago(“When You’re Good to Mama” and “Class”, the latter of which was cut from the movie).Chicagoreceived 13 Oscar nominations, winning six, including Best Picture. Latifah earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Queen Latifah’s first taste of acting success came in 1993 when she led the cast of the Fox sitcomLiving Single. The sitcom centered on the lives of six New York City friends who live in a Brooklyn brownstone and share personal and professional experiences.This series has the same basic plot as the TV sitcomFriends, but it came out a year earlier, and it is clear that the later, more successful sitcom took many of this show’s ideas and ran with them, but with a young white cast instead of the predominantly Black cast ofLiving Single.
The series ran for five seasons and 118 episodes and sawQueen Latifah, Kim Coles, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander, T.C. Carson, and John Henton as the six friends.Living Singlewon three NAACP Image Awards in 1998. While Queen Latifah was nominated, she didn’t win her award, losing to Erika Alexander for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. Also, Kim Coles won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, andLiving Singlewon Outstanding Comedy Series.
