TV-14

-- Select a Cast/Crew Member -- Jada Pinkett Smith Michael Vartan David Julian Hirsh Suleka Mathew Christina Moore Hannah Hodson

Actress, producer, director and philanthropist Jada Pinkett Smith is continually challenging herself in all aspects of her career. Not only will she be playing her first lead role in a TV series with HAWTHORNE, she is also executive-producing the show.

Pinkett Smith’s most recent work includes lending her voice to the role of Gloria in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, as well as the original hit Madagascar. She also played opposite Meg Ryan and Annette Bening in the remake of The Women from writer-director Diane English and is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Niobe in the hugely successful sequels The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions.

Choosing her roles carefully, Pinkett Smith starred opposite Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in Reign Over Me for Columbia Pictures, as well as playing a pivotal role opposite Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Michael Mann’s Collateral. Some of her other credits include Menace II Society, Jason’s Lyric, A Low Down Dirty Shame, The Nutty Professor, Set It Off and Scream 2, as well as voice work for Princess Mononoke.

Just as she does on screen, Pinkett Smith continually challenges herself off screen with new and exciting projects. Through her production company 100% Womon, Pinkett Smith produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for The Human Contract, in which she appears with Jason Clarke and Paz Vega.

Having an eye for excellence, Pinkett Smith helped turn The Secret Life of Bees, the best selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, into a hit movie that earned itself the NAACP award for Outstanding Motion Picture in 2009. She worked as executive producer on the film, which starred Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson. As producers, Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, were the creators and executive producers of The CW’s All of Us.

A native of Maryland, Pinkett Smith studied dance and acting at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her big break came when she landed a role on the long-running NBC series A Different World.