Queen Latifah is an Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress in Chicago and has a lead role in the hit CBS television series—The Equalizer.
The actress and rapper has had a very successful career since her humble beginnings in the late 80s, but where did she grow up?
Latifah grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, on the east coast of the United States of America. She is a daughter of a policeman and school teacher and had a brother who was also a police officer but tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident.
Let’s check out the Queen’s early life in New Jersey.
Family life
Based on her bio feature in Intimate Portrait, which aired in 1996, the BET award-winning actress had a fairly normal middle-class family life—having a mother, father, brother, and a dog. Her mother was a high school art teacher and a guidance counselor.
Queen Latifah (born Dana Owens) was a tomboy who liked to play outside and had confidence in herself, like there was nothing she couldn’t do because she was a girl. Her mother would make her captivated by the world by letting her read newspapers and talk about the news together.
She would always be told to believe in herself and that she could achieve anything. Although, her father’s influence was different compared to her mother’s.
He was a Vietnam War veteran and policeman and always did what was right in life and for the community. He was strong and funny but sensitive.
Both her parents instilled in her to have self-respect and take care of herself.
Describing her father as the man’s man—who was tough and very cool. Both she and her brother looked up to him as their hero.
Close siblings
Latifah had an older brother, Lancelot Owen Jr., who was born in 1969. She warmly called him “Winki,” and they were very close.
He was her best friend and confidant, and he was always there for her during her down moments. They were inseparable and would even take guitar lessons or dress up together for church.
According to their grandmother, Katherine Bray, they would get into all sorts of things together and spill Kool-Aid, and would eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She also recalled that her granddaughter was a force to be reckoned with even at a very early age.
Dana used to beat up her brother, and he was always taught never to hit girls. Rita Owens, their mother, shared that one time her son was in so much pain because his sister bit his ear.
Young Queen learned her lesson that day when Lancelot finally hit her back. She cried so much that it upset him too, making him cry also.
“I had to show her a lesson, mom,” Lance said, but they loved each other so much, their mother recalled.
Lancelot died in a motorcycle accident in 1992.
Her parent’s divorce
By age 9, her parents parted ways. The Equalizer star lost the family stability she knew and grew aggressive and defiant. Her mother did all she could to help Latifah adjust, and fortunately, her father remained present in her life.
He would come over every Thursday and see karate movies with her and have Chinese food. She could always reach her dad when she needed him. On days when her father wasn’t around, Lance Jr. became the man of the house and would look out for his mother and sister.
Although the actress, her brother, and her mother had a loving household, financially, they were unstable. The siblings helped by cleaning up the house while their mother had to work an extra job.
Catholic Schoolgirl
The People’s Choice Awardee was raised Baptist but went to a Catholic school in Newark and graduated from Essex Catholic Girls High School in Irvington. She had a strict education and had a queen mother guiding her in her formative years.
In a feature on ABC News, at a young age, the rapper showed signs of talent when she was in a school production of The Wiz, singing “Home.”
Her mother remembered that the most challenging part of raising her daughter was her independence and felt the importance of connecting with her because she would wander away.
During high school, Queen Latifah was a member of an all-female rap group called Ladies Fresh and would later attend Borough of Manhattan Community College.
My mama is a “Gangsta,” Owens shared. As per NBC, sadly, her mother passed away on March 21, 2018, battling interstitial lung disease and died of scleroderma, for which there is no cure.
What’s the Queen up to now?
The First Lady of Hip-Hop stars opposite Adam Sandler in Hustle, a hoop dreams basketball drama on Netflix which premiered in June 2022.
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