Born Willard Christopher Smith Jr on October 25th, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Smith grew up amidst the middle-classes, his father owning a refrigeration company. The second of four children (the younger Harry and Ellen are twins), Will was a bright child, constantly playing upon his natural charm, a habit which, at Overbrook High School, earned him the nickname Prince.

Influenced both by Eddie Murphy and new hip-hop heroes like Grandmaster Flash, Will began rapping at the age of 12, quickly developing his own slick, semi-comic style. Then, at age 16, he met the man with whom he would score his first worldwide success. At a party in Philadelphia, he cracked a joke that fell flat with everyone. Everyone, that is, except DJ Jazzy Jeff - real name Jeff Townes - who had himself been working at music since the age of 10. The pair became firm friends and began to collaborate, Jeff as DJ, Will as rapper (having expanded his nickname to Fresh Prince). So vigorous was their pursuit of musical excellence that Will even turned down a scholarship to Boston's super-prestigious MIT in order to follow his dream.

The pair's music was quirky, cheery and squeaky clean; a far cry from the new Gangsta Rap that was beginning to rear its bloodied head, and mainstream success was near immediate. Their first single, Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble (sampling the theme to I Dream Of Jeannie) was a hit in 1986, boosting the sales of their debut album Rock The House and making Will a millionaire at the age of 18. More hits followed, including the album He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, the first hip-hop LP to go double-platinum. In 1989, they won the first ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance for the track Parents Just Don't Understand, and received the three millionth call to their own 900 number (the US equivalent of 0898), the first ever set up by pop stars. A further Grammy was won in 1991, for the track Summertime, and the hits kept coming till Code Red, their final album together, in 1993. This, of course, was not the end of Will's rapping career. He would re-emerge in 1997 with a debut solo LP, Big Willie Style, which spawned the enormo-hit Gettin' Jiggy Wit It, and would strike again with 1999's mighty Willennium.

But by this time Will was already at the top of another profession. Back in the late Eighties, he'd met one Benny Medina, who had an idea for a sitcom concerning his experiences in Beverly Hills. NBC took up the option and, casting Will as a sassy, street-smart kid coping comically with life in Los Angeles' richest area, produced a series titled The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. The show, a major success, ran for six years, and gave Will a foot-hold in Hollywood, with movie offers soon coming thick and fast.

First came the bleak and melodramatic Where The Day Takes You, about young runaways in Hollywood, with Will way down a cast including Dermot Mulroney, Lara Flynn Boyle and Kyle MacLachlan. Then came a bigger role in Made In America, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, where Will performed a superb comic turn as Teacake, best friend to Goldberg's onscreen daughter Nia Long (also Will's girlfriend in Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air). Critics were mightily impressed by his first dramatic lead, as a manipulative imposter in John Guare's Oscar-nominated Six Degrees Of Separation, and then the public came on board with Bad Boys. One of the first modern, high-budget action thrillers to feature two black leads, this paired Will with fellow comic Martin Lawrence and took the box-office by storm. Will was now big business.

This he proved in his next feature, the sprawling, explosive Independence Day. As Marine Corps Captain Steve Hiller (a character he based on childhood hero Harrison Ford's Han Solo), he made the very best of limited dialogue, and stole the show by punching out a grotesque, murderous alien then delivering a deadpan "Welcome to Earth". For a while, he could do no wrong. With Tommy Lee Jones as his straight-man, he scored an spectacular cross-generational hit with Men In Black, then starred in the superior conspiracy thriller Enemy Of The State. Next came his one major set-back, with the relative failure of Wild Wild West. Despite the popularity of the Smith-rapped theme tune, the public did not take to the movie's bizarre combination of buccaneering cowboy action and gothic science fiction.

But Will pressed on, undeterred, charting high again in America as the mystical caddie in Robert Redford's The Legend Of Bagger Vance. Soon will come the much-anticipated Men In Black 2 and - Will's greatest challenge yet - Michael Mann's bio-pic Ali. Will actually turned the role down eight times, believing no one could successfully replicate Muhammad Ali's skill and charisma. Only a personal call from the great man himself could change his mind.

Will Smith has been twice married: first to Sheree Zampino (1992-95) with whom he had one child, Willard Smith III: then to actress Jada Pinkett (1997-) with whom he has a son, Jaden Christopher Syre, and a daughter, Willow Camille Reign. He actually met Pinkett many years before they married, when she tried out for the part of his girlfriend in Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (the part going, as mentioned, to Nia Long). Having received $5 million for Men In Black, $14 million for Enemy Of The State, and an amazing $20 million (plus a percentage of gross profits) for Ali, Will is also busying himself as a producer, having set up his own production company, Overbrook Entertainment, with partner James Lassiter.

Having conquered the worlds of music and film, you'd think Will Smith would have no ambitions left, that there was no mountain left to climb. But, being Will Smith, he says the biggest is yet to come.

FILMOGRAPHY

Ali (2001)
Men In Black 2 (2001)
The Legend Of Bagger Vance (2000)
Wild Wild West (1999)
Enemy Of The State (1998)
Men In Black (1997)
Independence Day (1996)
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child (TV series) (1995)
Bad Boys (1995)
Six Degrees Of Separation (1993)
Made In America (1993)
Where The Day Takes You (1992)
The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (TV series) (1990-1996)

P. Diddy at the MTV Video Music Awards

National Bar

Blacks In Government

Black Hotel Owners