Jamie Foxx

Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer.

Foxx first told jokes at a comedy club's open mic night in 1989, after accepting a girlfriend's dare.

When he found that female comedians were often called first to perform, he chose the stage name of Jamie Foxx, which he felt was ambiguous enough to disallow any biases, with his surname being a tribute to the black comedian Redd Foxx.

Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991, where his recurrent character Wanda also shared a name with Redd's friend and co-worker, LaWanda Page.

Foxx made his film debut in the 1992 comedy Toys.

Foxx gained his career breakthrough as a featured player in the sketch comedy show In Living Color until the show's end in 1994.

In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This, which was not commercially successful.

Following this success, he was given his own sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, in which he starred, co-created and produced from 1996 to 2001.

Following a recurring role in the comedy-drama sitcom Roc, Foxx went on to star in his own sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, from 1996 to 2001, which he also co-created and produced through his company Foxx Hole Productions and was aired on the WB network.

He gained prominence for his film roles in Booty Call (1997), Ali (2001), Jarhead (2005), Dreamgirls (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Horrible Bosses (2011), Django Unchained (2012), Annie (2014), Baby Driver (2017), and Soul (2020).

His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he was cast as a hard-partying quarterback, partly because of his own football background.

During filming, Foxx fought with costar LL Cool J.

Foxx also embarked a successful career as an R&B singer in the 2000s.

He earned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with his features on the singles "Slow Jamz" by Twista alongside Kanye West, and "Gold Digger" by Kanye West.

His single "Blame It" won him the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

In 2001, Foxx starred opposite Will Smith in Michael Mann's biographical drama Ali.

Three years later, Foxx played taxi driver Max Durocher in the Mann film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews.

Critic Roger Ebert praised Foxx's performance, stating that, "Jamie Foxx's work is a revelation. I've thought of him in terms of comedy ("Booty Call," "Breakin' all the Rules"), but here he steps into a dramatic lead and is always convincing and involving".

He went on to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

In 2003, Foxx made a cameo in Benzino's music video for "Would You", which features LisaRaye McCoy and Mario Winans.

In 2003, Foxx featured on the rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", together with Kanye West, which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #3 on the UK Singles chart.

He received acclaim for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the film Ray (2004), winning the Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

That same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the crime film Collateral.

Four of his five studio albums have charted in the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200: Unpredictable (2005), which topped the chart, Intuition (2008), Best Night of My Life (2010), and Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (2015).

He played the supervillain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Since 2017, Foxx has served as the host and executive producer of the Fox game show Beat Shazam.

In 2021, he wrote his autobiography Act Like You Got Some Sense.

Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx is the son of Darrell Bishop (renamed Shahid Abdula following his conversion to Islam), who sometimes worked as a stockbroker, and Louise Annette Talley Dixon.

Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother's adoptive parents, Esther Marie (Nelson), a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker.

He has had little contact with his birth parents, who were not part of his upbringing.

He was raised in the black quarter of Terrell, which at the time was a racially segregated community.

He has often acknowledged his grandmother's influence as one of the greatest reasons for his success.

Foxx began playing the piano when he was five years old.

He had a strict Baptist upbringing and as a teenager was a part-time pianist and choir leader in Terrell's New Hope Baptist Church.

His natural talent for telling jokes was already in evidence as a third grader, when his teacher used him as a reward: if the class behaved well, Foxx would tell them jokes.

He attended Terrell High School, where he received top grades and played basketball and football (as quarterback).

His ambition was to play for the Dallas Cowboys, and he was the first player in the school's history to pass for more than 1,000 yards.

He also sang in a band called Leather and Lace.

After high school, Foxx received a scholarship to United States International University, where he studied musical and performing arts composition.

For playing Walter McMillian in Just Mercy (2019) he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.