Will Smith

Will Smith has diligently built a long and successful career in multiple entertainment arenas, beginning with his early success in the late 1980s as a young rap star known as the “Fresh Prince”. The nickname is said to have generated from Smith’s high school nickname “Prince”, which his peers gave him based on his charming and sly demeanor. Smith and best friend Jeff Townes formed a rap duo that became known as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

As the theme song to Smith’s TV breakthrough suggests, Smith was born in West Philadelphia. His mother was a school administrator and his father a refrigeration engineer. They separated when he was 13. The popular television show “The Fresh Prince” portrayed Smith as a high-schooler dropped off at his aunt and uncle’s ritzy Bel Air home when his mother couldn’t take care of him.

Smith had bigger goals. The Fresh Prince had come at a good time for Smith, in 1990. After some trouble with back taxes with the IRS, the NBC show was a success and helped him get back on his fight. However, his next ambitious goal, as he states, was to become “the biggest movie star in the world”. Smith’s movie career jump started in the 1995 hit Bad Boys, a cop show in which Smith starred with Martin Lawrence. The film marked his third successful entertainment profession (music, TV, film).

Smith overcame the mistakes of his youth through ambition, specific goals, and intelligence (he was admitted into pre-engineering at MIT, though never attended college). If not the “biggest” movie star, Smith is certainly near the top. Remarkably, he managed to make the transition from his persona as the sly, hip-hopper known as the Fresh Prince, to a serious actor. His roles include many powerful films, such as: Independence Day (1996), Men in Black I & II, Bad Boys II, I Robot, and more recently, The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds.