Will Smith is a versatile American actor, rapper, and film producer born on September 25, 1968. He’s won many big awards like an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and four Grammys. His movies have made over $9.3 billion worldwide, making him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood.
Smith started acting in a TV show called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where he played a version of himself. He also made music with DJ Jazzy Jeff and together they had hits like Parents Just Don’t Understand and Summertime. Later, Smith went solo and released albums like Big Willie Style and Willennium.
He became famous for action movies like Bad Boys and Comedies like Men in Black. He even got nominated for Oscars for his roles in Ali and The Pursuit of Happiness. Smith has been in lots of other successful movies too, like I, Robot, Hitch, and I Am Legend.
In 2021, Smith won another Oscar for playing Richard Williams in King Richard. But at the 2022 Oscars, he got into a big controversy. He slapped Chris Rock because Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. This made headlines everywhere, and Smith had to leave the Academy and couldn’t go to their events for ten years.
| Full Name | Willard Carroll Smith II |
| Date of Birth | September 25, 1968 |
| Place of Birth | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Occupation | Actor, Rapper, Producer |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Spouse | Jada Pinkett Smith(m. 1997), Sheree Zampino(m. 1992–1995) |
| Children | Trey Smith, Jaden Smith, Willow Smith |
| Net Worth | $350 million |
Will Smith’s Early Life and Education
Willard Carroll Smith II was born on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia. His parents are Caroline and Willard Carroll Smith Sr. His mom worked for the school board, and his dad was a US Air Force veteran and a refrigeration engineer. His mom graduated from Carnegie Mellon University.
He grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood and went to a private Catholic elementary school called Our Lady of Lourdes. Later, he attended Overbrook High School. Willard has an older sister named Pamela and two younger siblings, twins Harry and Ellen. His parents separated when he was 13 and got divorced around 2000.
Willard started rapping when he was just 12 years old. His grandma once found his notebook full of lyrics, including some curse words. She wrote him a note, saying that smart people don’t need to use bad words to express themselves. This made Willard decide not to use profanity in his music.
Career
1985–1992: DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
Will Smith and his friend Jeff Townes, who went by DJ Jazzy Jeff, met by chance in 1985. Townes was performing nearby when he needed someone to hype up the crowd. Smith stepped in, and they hit it off. They decided to work together, adding another friend, Clarence Holmes aka Ready Rock C, as the beatboxer.
They released their first single in 1986, thanks to a connection named Paul Oakenfold. It was called Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble, a funny song about their misadventures. It became popular just before Smith graduated high school.
Their success caught the eye of Jive Records and Russell Simmons. Their first album, Rock the House, came out in 1987 and won them a Grammy for Parents Just Don’t Understand in 1989. Their biggest hit, Summertime, earned them another Grammy in 1991.
Despite their success, Smith had financial troubles due to overspending and not paying enough taxes. The IRS hit him with a $2.8 million debt and took his stuff. But then NBC signed him for a sitcom called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which launched his acting career.
Smith aimed to become a huge movie star and studied successful movies. In 1989, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his record promoter but the charges were dropped later on.
1993–1997: Solo music and film breakthrough
Will Smith got his big break in the movies with roles in Six Degrees of Separation in 1993 and Bad Boys in 1995, where he starred alongside Martin Lawrence. Bad Boys made a lot of money, but critics had mixed feelings about it.
Then in 1996, Smith was part of the cast of Independence Day, which was a huge hit and made him a big deal in Hollywood.
The next summer, in 1997, he was in another hit movie called Men in Black, where he played Agent J alongside Tommy Lee Jones. This movie made a ton of money and people loved it, especially for the humor and the performances of Jones and Smith.
Around the same time, Smith also started his music career with the release of the song Men in Black, which was the theme song for the movie. It did well on the charts along with his other songs like Just Cruisin and Gettin’ Jiggy with It. His first solo album, Big Willie Style, also did great, reaching the top ten in the US and getting nine platinum certifications.
1998–2007: Leading man status
In 1998, Will Smith starred in a movie called Enemy of the State alongside Gene Hackman. The next year, he had the chance to play Neo in The Matrix but chose to be in Wild Wild West instead. He later said he didn’t regret his choice, thinking Keanu Reeves did a better job as Neo. However, he admitted that Wild Wild West could’ve been better.
His second album, Willennium, featured the song Wild Wild West, which became a hit. Another song from the album, Will 2K, also did well. In 1999, he released a video album featuring his music videos. He also collaborated with Tatyana Ali on a song called Boy You Knock Me Out.
In 2001, Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie called Ali which was nominated for awards. After a break from music, he released his third album, Born to Reign, in 2002. The lead single was from the movie Men in Black II.
In 2003, Smith was back with Bad Boys II, which made a lot of money despite mixed reviews. The following year, he starred in I, Robot and Shark Tale, both successful despite some criticism. His album Lost and Found came out in 2005.
In 2006, Smith and his son Jaden starred in The Pursuit of Happyness. Smith was honored at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in 2007 and starred in I Am Legend later that year, which did well at the box office. He was also named one of America’s top ten most fascinating people in 2008.
2008–2019: Blockbusters and critical disappointments
In 2008, Will Smith started working on a movie called The Last Pharaoh, where he was going to play Taharqa. He also starred in Hanco*ck, a superhero film that made a lot of money. Then, in 2011, he went back to making music.
Smith came back as Agent J in Men in Black 3 in 2012, after not being in a big movie for a while. He said he might not do more Men in Black movies after that. Men in Black 3 made a lot of money, more than any other movie in the series.
In 2013, Smith was in a movie called After Earth with his son Jaden. It didn’t do well at the box office and people didn’t like it. Smith took a break after that because it was hard for him.
Then, in 2015, he was in a movie called Focus with Margot Robbie. He played a con artist who teaches a young woman how to trick people. He was supposed to be in another movie called Brilliance, but he left to make a different movie about football injuries called Concussion. In Concussion, Smith played a doctor who found out that football can hurt people’s brains. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make the movie at first, but then he met the real doctor and changed his mind. People thought Smith’s acting was really good in that movie.
In 2016, Smith played a bad guy in a movie called Suicide Squad. He had to pick between being in that movie or being in another one called Independence Day: Resurgence. Suicide Squad made a lot of money, but critics didn’t like it.
Later that year, he was in a movie called Collateral Beauty, where he played a very sad man. Smith’s dad died while he was making that movie which made it even harder for him. The movie didn’t do well at the box office and people didn’t like it.
In 2017, Will Smith was in a movie called Bright, which was shown on Netflix. It was an action movie with magic and monsters but people didn’t like it. He also released a song with his friend Jazzy Jeff and started his own YouTube channel.
Smith sang a song at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and also sang on a song by Marc Anthony. He played the Genie in a live-action version of Aladdin which was a big hit. He also sang some songs for that movie. Smith was in a movie called Gemini Man where he fought against a younger version of himself. It didn’t do well, and people didn’t like it.
In 2019, he voiced a spy in an animated movie called Spies in Disguise, and he was in the third Bad Boys movie. Smith also invested a lot of money in an esports company.
In 2020, it was announced that Smith would be in a movie called Emancipation, where he plays a slave who escapes from hunters.
2020–present: Memoir andKing Richard
Will Smith’s book, “Will,” came out on November 9, 2021, and he went on tour to promote it. The book talks about his life, including tough times in his childhood, his relationship with his dad, and his experiences with a plant called ayahuasca.
In 2021, Will Smith played the role of Richard Williams, the dad and coach of tennis champs Venus and Serena Williams, in the movie King Richard. He did such a great job that he won big awards like the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Then, on February 7, 2022, National Geographic said Will Smith would be in a show called Pole to Pole, which will be on Disney+. In the show, Will and his team will travel 26,000 miles from the South Pole to the North Pole, exploring different parts of the world along the way. They even went to the Amazon jungle in Ecuador to film part of it where they found a special kind of snake.
2022 Oscars confrontation
During the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, Will Smith got on stage and slapped Chris Rock because he made a joke about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, having a shaved head due to a medical condition. Will got upset and cursed at Chris, telling him to stop talking about his wife.
Jada had been dealing with a hair loss condition called alopecia since 2018 and eventually shaved her head because of it. The people who run the Oscars asked Will to leave, but he didn’t want to.
Later that night, Will Smith won the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard and said sorry to everyone except Chris Rock. After a lot of people got mad at him, Will said sorry again on Instagram. The TV network ABC, the Oscars organization, and a group of actors all said they were mad at Will for what he did. The Oscars group started checking into what happened.
Chris Rock decided not to press charges against Will, according to the police. But on April 1, 2022, Will said he was quitting the Oscars group because he felt bad about ruining the night for other actors. The Oscars group said OK and kept looking into what happened.
Because of what happened, Will can’t go to the Oscars or any of their parties for the next 10 years. Some movies that Will was supposed to be in got stopped because of this mess. Will said he was OK with what the Oscars group decided. On July 29, Will said sorry again on camera and said he felt really bad for what he did.
Net Worth
Will Smith’s Net Worth is estimated to be $350 Million as of 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Personal life
Business
Will Smith and his brother Harry run a company called Treyball Development Inc. It’s based in Beverly Hills and named after Trey Smith. They live in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, Smith turned 50 and marked the occasion by bungee jumping from a helicopter in the Grand Canyon. Lloyd’s of London insured him for $200 million for the jump, which raised funds for the charity Global Citizen.
Relationships and family
In 1992, Will Smith married Sheree Zampino, and they had a son named Willard Carroll “Trey” Smith III later that year. Unfortunately, they got divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in one of his dad’s music videos and had small roles in a TV show and some special TV events.
In the late 1980s, Smith briefly dated Sandra Denton, known as Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa.
Then, on December 31, 1997, Smith married actress Jada Koren Pinkett. They met when she auditioned for a role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. They make movies together through their company, Overbrook Entertainment. They have two kids: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, who acted with his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth, and Willow Camille Reign Smith, who was in I Am Legend.
Will Smith and Jada Smith have a different kind of marriage, calling it a “bad marriage for life” as a joke. They’ve both admitted to having relationships outside of marriage and thinking it’s okay. Will even wanted to have a relationship with Halle Berry and Misty Copeland but he gave up on the idea after going to therapy.
In October 2023, Jada said they’ve been separated since 2016, but they’re not planning to get divorced.
Religious and political views
Will Smith grew up in a religious family, going to church and a Catholic school but he doesn’t see himself as religious. In an interview in 2013, he talked about this. However, in 2015, he mentioned how his Christian faith, taught to him by his grandmother helped him act in the movie Concussion. He admired her strong belief even when she was dying.
In 2018, Smith participated in Hindu rituals in India and felt a strong connection to Hindu spirituality and astrology. He also met with the spiritual leader Sadhguru and enjoyed their talks.
Smith supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and hosted a concert to celebrate Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win in 2009. In 2012, he said he backed same-sex marriage. In 2021, he decided to move the filming of his new movie, Emancipation, from Georgia because of a new law that many saw as unfairly limiting non-white people’s ability to vote. Smith and the director, Antoine Fuqua, said they couldn’t support a government that made it harder for people to vote.
Public image and legacy
Will Smith is known for his incredible success in music and acting. Many say he’s one of the best actors of his time, and Forbes even called him the top movie star since 9/11. His move from music to acting has inspired other rappers to follow suit. He’s been recognized by Time and Esquire as one of the most influential people in the world and the 21st century, respectively.
Music
Back when Will Smith was with DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, they did some pretty amazing stuff. They were the first rap group ever to snag a Grammy Award, and also the first to win an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video. Their song Parents Just Don’t Understand was a hit, winning in the very first rap categories at both award shows.
People in the rap world think he’s a big deal. XXL magazine even called him “one of the most important rappers of all time“. And get this: his first solo album, Big Willie Style released in 1997 is still selling like hotcakes, even in 2013! It’s one of the top-selling rap albums ever.
Television
Will Smith started his acting journey by being on the TV show called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on NBC. This show was a big deal for Hip-Hop and Black TV because it was super successful. Lots of people think it’s one of the best sitcoms ever made. Professor Andrew Horton says that the type of comedy Smith did on The Fresh Prince was really popular and helped him become a big deal in movies too. The show took advantage of the growing popularity of Hip Hop and kind of predicted how big it would become in America.
Willie Tolliver, an author, pointed out that The Fresh Prince did something important by putting Smith and his character Will in a rich and promising environment. This changed how people saw Black identity. Smith’s ability to move into different spaces in Hollywood mirrors how he changes the image of Black men in movies and TV.
Film
Will Smith became super famous after his first movie, Where the Day Takes You, in 1992. He’s been in a bunch of really successful movies since then. He’s set a record for having the most back-to-back movies that made over $100 million each in the US.
One of his recent movies, Bright, was a big deal on Netflix. It was the most-watched Netflix movie ever in its first week! And get this, it was the first big Hollywood movie to come out on a streaming platform instead of in theaters, and over 100 million people watched it worldwide at the same time.
Remember Men in Black 3 Will Smith played Agent J in that, and he got paid a crazy amount of money for it – like, $100 million! He’s had some other high-paying roles too, like in King Richard and Bright.
Another cool thing about Will Smith is that his movie Emancipation was sold to Apple Studios for a whopping $120 million. That’s the most money ever paid for a movie at a film festival!
And in 2022, Will Smith won an Oscar for Best Actor, making him only the fifth black actor to ever win that award. Pretty awesome, right?
Awards
Will Smith has won lots of big awards in his acting career. One of his biggest wins was getting an Academy Award for his role as Richard Williams, the dad and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, in the movie King Richard. He also got a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the same role. Plus, he was nominated for an Oscar for producing the movie.
Before this, he was nominated a bunch of times for other big awards too. He was up for an Oscar twice, for his roles in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. He was nominated for a Golden Globe five times, for his work in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Concussion. He was nominated once for a Screen Actors Guild Award for The Pursuit of Happyness.
In 2005, he got an honorary César Award. That same year, he was in the running for a Tony Award for his role in the musical Fela! And in 2021, he got a nomination for producing Cobra Kai for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Outside of acting, he’s also dipped his toes into hip-hop music. He released a few songs and won four Grammy Awards for them. One was for “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” another for “Summertime,” and two for “Men in Black” and “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It.” The last two he won with his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff when they were known as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.
All of these nominations for big awards like the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards make him one of the few black actors to be up for all four major entertainment awards in the US.
