Jamie Foxx is a renowned American actor, singer, and comedian, with a prolific career spanning over three decades. He is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning performance in the biographical film Ray (2004),which earned him numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Born Eric Marlon Bishop in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was adopted by his maternal grandparents, Mark and Estelle Talley, at the age of seven months. He grew up in a rigid household, where he was enrolled in the Boy Scouts and the church choir. During his high school years, he played quarterback for his team and was even featured in Dallas newspapers.
After studying music in college, Foxx released his debut music album, "Peep This" (1994),and went on to sing the theme song for his movie, Any Given Sunday (1999). However, it was his impromptu performance at a comedy club in 1989 that changed the course of his life. He was challenged by a girlfriend to get up onstage, and he took his androgynous stage name, Jamie Foxx, because he learned that women received preference for microphone time on open stage nights.
This led to his being cast on the TV shows Roc (1991) and In Living Color (1990). Foxx then went on to star in his own WB television show, The Jamie Foxx Show (1996-2001),playing the role of Jamie King Jr. He is also a Grammy Award-winning musician, having produced four albums that have charted highly on the US Billboard 200: "Unpredictable" (2005),"Intuition" (2008),"Best Night of My Life" (2010),and "Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses" (2015).
In 2012, Foxx starred in the title role of the Quentin Tarantino-written and directed Django Unchained (2012),alongside Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson. The following year, he was cast as President James Sawyer in White House Down (2013),alongside Channing Tatum. Foxx also appeared as the villain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) and co-starred with Quvenzhané Wallis in Annie (2014),Sony's Will Smith and Jay-Z produced update of the comic strip-turned-musical.
In his personal life, Foxx has two children, including Corinne Foxx (born 1994),who resides with her mother.
