Will Smith

Will Smith was born in Philadelphia, is the son of a Philadelphia school board
administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr. a refrigeration technician. He grew
up in West Philadelphia in a neighborhood called Wynnefielde and was raised
Baptist. He has three siblings, a sister named Pamela, who is four years older,
and twins Harry and Ellen, who are three years younger. Will Smith went to Our
Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic school in Philadelphia. His parents separated
when he was thirteen, but did not divorce until around 2000. Will Smith went to
Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. Although widely reported, it is not true
that Smith turned down a scholarship to study at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; he never went to college because he wanted to be a rapper. Will
Smith says that he was enrolled in a "summer pre-engineering program" at
Institute of Technology for high school students, but he did not attend,
According to Will Smith, "My mother, who worked for the Philadelphia School
Board, had a friend who was the admissions officer at Institute of Technology. I
had very high grades and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gone.
But I had no intention of going to college."

Will Smith's Career

Will Smith is world-renowned mainly for acting in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air from one Thousand nine hundred nitey to one Thousand nine hundred
ninety six as well as the films Men in Black, The Pursuit of Happyness and
Hancock. Pursuing the world of music, Will met DJ Jazzy Jeff at a party, forming
a duo that soon went into action, performing as DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.
As the duo's popularity began to soar, Smith earned and spent a lot of money
buying a house, cars, and jewelry. However, he was looking for something
different and new when, in one Thousand nine hundred eighty six, he met Benny
Medina, who had the idea of producing a sitcom based on his life in Beverly
Hills. Smith loved the idea and so did NBC, the American television station,
which in one Thousand nine hundred nitey aired Medina's idea under the name
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The script was simple - Will just played himself: a
smart, rebellious boy from Philadelphia who moves in with his aunt and uncle in
Bel-Air.
 The series ran for six years, during which time he ventured into films and got
noticed by critics, as in Six Degrees of Separation in one Thousand nine hundred
ninety-five.
After the success that came from the one Thousand nine hundred ninety-five
action movie Bad Boys, Will Smith's career was assured. A year later he
participated in the big hit Independence Day, where he played the role of Steven
Hiller, a Marine officer who fights against the alien invasion.
He is one of the few people who enjoy success in the three biggest
entertainment media in the United States: film, television, and the record
industry.
Will Smith is a four-time Grammy Award winner and has released eleven
albums, the first six still as The Fresh Prince with DJ Jazzy Jeff, and the last five
solo. He has appeared in twenty one films, either as a voice actor (Shark Tale),
narrator (A Closer Walk), or producer.
In total, Will Smith has received about $135 million for his film performances. He
was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for Ali in two Thousand
one and for The Pursuit of Happyness in two Thousand six.