A Philadelphia native, Will Smith was born on September 25, 1968. The son of middle-class parents (his father owned a refrigeration company and his mother worked for the school board) and the second of four children, Smith started rapping from the age of 12, and earned the nickname "Prince" thanks to his ability to slickly talk his way out of trouble.
Will attended the Overbrook High School in Winfield, Pennsylvania, and got the nickname 'Prince' because of the way he could charm his way out of trouble. Bright student Will also signed up with the high-status Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia and later turned down a scholarship for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after deciding to take his music career seriously.
Luckily, he met Benny Medina, who had an idea for a sitcom based on his life in Beverly Hills. Smith loved the idea as did NBC which put on the "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990). The plot was simple -Will basically played himself; a street-smart West Philly kid transplanted to Beverly Hills. The series lasted 6 years.
During Prince's lengthy run, Smith began to branch out into film work. Following roles in Where the Day Takes You (1992) and Made in America (1993), he drew substantial critical praise on the arthouse circuit, as a young homosexual con man feigning an identity as Sidney Poitier's son, in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), directed by Fred Schepisi.
Smith’s film credits include Ali, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the famed boxer. The Legend of Bagger Vance, directed by Robert Redford earned him an NAACP Award nomination for Best Actor. The box office hit Wild, Wild West, for which his theme song went gold and the soundtrack, produced by Overbrook, went platinum. He thrilled audiences in the suspenseful "Enemy of the State" and starred in two of the 50 all-time top-grossing films worldwide--1997's summer smash "Men In Black," additionally recording the Grammy-winning title song, and 1996's "Independence Day." Smith also starred in Columbia Pictures' "Bad Boys," one of the largest grossing films of 1995.
Will Smith is partnered with James Lassiter in Overbrook Entertainment.
