Her first movie role actually came in 1991 when she was 21, and she took on a small role in the Spike Lee movie Jungle Fever as a waitress named Lashawn. This led to more movie roles before she enjoyed her breakout in the 1993 television series, Living Single. After a five-season run on the show, her career exploded, with roles in movies like Bringing Down the House, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Last Holiday, Hairspray, Girl’s Trip, and her successful TV adaptation of The Equalizer.
10Bringing Down The House (2003)
Charlene Morton
Bringing Down the House
Cast
Queen LatifahCharlene Morton
Steve MartinPeter Sanderson
Eugene LevyHowie Rottman
Joan PlowrightMrs. Virginia Arness
Bringing Down the House allowed 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 and is a felon who started chatting with him while she was in prison, lying the entire time.
Related
10 Movie Star Team-Ups You Forgot About
Whether it was because the chemistry was off or the film was poorly received, there are many movie star team-ups that people have forgotten about.
9Star (2016-2019)
Carlotta Brown
Star
Cast
- Al SharptonRev. Al Sharpton
Ben VereenCalvin- Big BoiAntwan ‘Big Boi’ Patton
- Bill WinklerJudge Kallenbach
Queen Latifah has starred in several TV shows over the years, and one that isn’t talked about as much is the music drama series Star. 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.
8Beauty Shop (2005)
Gina Norris
Beauty Shop
Cast
- Queen Latifah
Alicia Silverstone
Andie MacDowell
Alfre Woodard
Barbershop was 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 of Beauty Shop also 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 third Barbershop movie came out 11 years later.
7The Secret Life Of Bees (2008)
August Boatwright
The Secret Life of Bees
Cast
Dakota FanningLily Owens- Queen LatifahAugust Boatwright
Jennifer HudsonRosaleen Daise
Alicia KeysJune Boatwright
The Secret Life of Bees takes 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.
6Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Penny Escher
Stranger Than Fiction
Cast
Will FerrellHarold Crick
Maggie GyllenhaalAna Pascal
Dustin HoffmanProfessor Jules Hilbert
Emma ThompsonKaren Eiffel
Will Ferrell had a chance to take on a very different role when he starred in the Marc Forster fantasy comedy Stranger Than Fiction in 2006. While Ferrell was mostly known at the time for his broad slapstick comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, this was a more nuanced comedy similar to the change that Jim Carrey attempted in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In Stranger Than Fiction, Ferrell is Harold Crick, an IRS agent who realizes one day that he is a fictional character in a novel.
5Hustle (2022)
Teresa Sugarman
Hustle
Cast
- Queen Latifah
- Juancho Hernangómez
In 2022, Adam Sandler continued his trend of making serious movies in between his broad comedies and released the sports drama Hustle on 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 NBA as well.
Related
Hustle Movie Ending Explained (In Detail)
Adam Sandler’s new Netflix movie builds to a big moment for Stanley Sugerman and Bo Cruz. Here is how Hustle ends and what happens to the NBA.
4The Equalizer (2021–Present)
Robyn McCall
The Equalizer
Cast
- Queen Latifah
Adam Goldberg
The Equalizer is 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.
Related
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.
3Ice Age Franchise (2006–Present)
Ellie (Voice)
Ice Age
In 2006, Queen Latifah joined the Ice Age franchise 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. In Ice 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 married and having a child for future movies.
This led to Latifah returning in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, where Ellie and Manny are raising their daughter Peaches. Queen Latifah has appeared in four Ice Age movies, with a sixth coming in 2026. She also appeared in two TV specials. While not as beloved as other animated franchises like Despicable Me and Kung Fu Panda, the Ice Age franchise has still made over $3.2 billion at the box office. However, the last movie in the franchise was the worst box office take.
2Chicago (2002)
Matron “Mama” Morton
Chicago
Cast
Renée Zellweger
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Queen Latifah had a big role in the 2002 Oscar-winning movie Chicago. 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.
Related
Chicago: Every Song In The Movie, Ranked
The musical Chicago has plenty of memorable songs, with these being all of them ranked.
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 in Chicago (“When You’re Good to Mama” and “Class”, the latter of which was cut from the movie). Chicago received 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.
1Living Single (1993-1998)
Khadijah James
Living Single
Cast
- Queen Latifah
- Kim Coles
Queen Latifah’s first taste of acting success came in 1993 when she led the cast of the Fox sitcom Living 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 sitcom Friends, 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 of Living Single.
The series ran for five seasons and 118 episodes and saw Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander, T.C. Carson, and John Henton as the six friends. Living Single won 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, and Living Single won Outstanding Comedy Series.
