Latifah made her biggest impact on TV as part of the ensemble of "Living Single" (Fox, 1993-97). This surprise hit sitcom about an apartment of young black career women and their friends presented Latifah as the strong-willed and supremely competent owner-editor of Flavor, an urban style magazine. She has also appeared on numerous music awards and public service specials and was the subject of a 1997 "Intimate Portrait" special on Lifetime.

Latifah went against hip-hop stereotypes by refusing to capitalize on her sexuality in her impressively eclectic music. More pop figure than hard-core rapper, she never topped the charts, but gained a devoted following as a role model, earning a 1995 Grammy for her anthem "U.N.I.T.Y." Born Dana Owens, she was given the nickname 'Latifah', Arabic for delicate and sensitive, by a cousin while she was a teen. Her appreciation of culture was nurtured by her mother, a high school art teacher who once ran a jazz and poetry club in Newark, NJ. Her policeman father taught her to value physical skills, training the tomboyish youngster in karate and the use of firearms. (She was put on probation and fined in 1996 for carrying one of those firearms in her car). Latifah was the power forward of two state championship winning high school basketball teams and retains her formidable shape by working out with a kick-boxer. She also serves as CEO of Flavor Unit, her own record label/talent management/video production firm.

Latifah's next major role came in 1999 when she had a supporting role in the film "Living Out Loud" which starred Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito. Also in 1999, Latifah started her own syndicated talk show and successfully stayed on the air until 2001, not an easy feat in the cut-throat daytime ratings world. In 2002, Latifah had a very busy year, appearing in several television and film productions, including "Brown Sugar" and "The O.Z.," a TV-movie hip-hop remake of "The Wizard of Oz," where she played Gilda, the Good Witch. She also appeared in the CBS mini-series "Living With the Dead" and lent her voice to the Disney film "The Country Bears."

These roles would pale in comparison to her next major assignment, playing prison matron Mama Morton in the dazzling film adaptation of the hit musical "Chicago" (2002). Displaying a casual yet edgy charisma and an excellent instinct for dancing and singing, Latifah charmed and captivated audiences with her bravura performance and suddenly found both her profile and her ranking among Hollywood's heavy hitters raised when her supporting turn resulted in a flurry of major award nominations, including Golden Globe and Academy Award nods.

Just as her star was rising, Latifah also made a major impression as a comedic actress, co-starring with Steve Martin in the comedy "Bringing Down the House" (2003), playing an recently released inmate who meets Martin through an Internet dating service who wreaks havoc on – and then helps improve – his lackluster life. Her roll continued later that year with a crowd-pleasing cameo in the hit spoof sequel "Scary Movie 3," her mellifluous voiceovers also appeared in commercials for Pizza Hut and Mariott Courtyard Hotels, and she had a small but showy and pivotal role in "Barbershop 2: Back In Business" (2004) as the independent Gina, who gives as good as she gets to the cantankerous Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer), prompting plans for a Latifah-centric spin-off called "Beauty Shop." She then co-wrote, co-produced and took a strategic supporting role as an overzealous neighborhood security guard in the urban comedy "The Cookout" (2004) before co-starring opposite Jimmy Fallon as a smart-mouthed cab driver saddled with a bumbling cop as her fare in the ham-fisted comedy "Taxi" (2004). Meanwhile, she expanded her musical horizons with the critically hailed 2004 disc "The Dana Owens Album," in which she smoothly interpreted music from the Great American Songbook, and her musical credibility, musical appeal and sense of humor landed her the hosting duties for the 2005 Grammy Awards before she returned to theaters again as Gina in the spin-off franchise film "Beauty Shop" (2005), which she also produced.

Latifah at last found a star vehicle perfectly suited to her particular on screen charms in the light, diverting confection "Last Holiday" (2006), directed by Wayne Wang. In the film the actress played a timid, conservative woman who, upon discovering that she has only three weeks to live, embarks on a final fling to a luxury European hotel in an attempt to live her last days to the fullest. Though the film did occasionally veer into unnecessary slapstick territory, it did showcase the actress' diverse talents and amply enforced her warm, brassy star power. She next gave voice to Ellie the female wooly mammoth in “Ice Age: The Meltdown” (2006), the wildly successful sequel to “Ice Age” (2002) that that reunited Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo), Manny the wooly mammoth (Ray Romano), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and Scrat the prehistoric squirrel (Chris Wedge) in a quest to find Manny a mate despite possibly being the last mammoth in their rapidly melting world. They miraculously find Ellie, the only female mammoth left, but soon discover that she and Manny can’t stand each other—not to mention she thinks she’s a possum.