Jamie Foxx

One of the greatest entertainers of all time, Jamie Foxx is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer as well as an Oscar-winning actor and comedian.

Born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967 in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was raised by his mother’s adoptive parents, Estelle Marie Talley and Mark Talley. He began playing piano at the age of five and was a member of his local church’s choir as a teenager. After high school, he was offered a scholarship to study music composition at United States International University in San Diego, California.

Foxx began his comedy career in 1989 after he was dared by his girlfriend to perform at an open mic night. Seeing how women would get preferential treatment, he chose different unisex stage names and got the best response with Jamie Foxx, where “Foxx” was used as an homage to comedian Redd Foxx. His breakthrough came in 1991 when he joined the cast of the hit FOX comedy sketch show In Living Color, where he remained until the show’s end in May 1994. Two months later, Foxx released his debut album Peep This but it didn’t generate much attention. From 1996 to 2001, Foxx starred in his own WB sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show, and he made memorable appearances in the movies Any Given Sunday (1999) and Ali (2001) during the show’s run.

The 2000s saw Jamie Foxx’s star rise as he portrayed music legend Ray Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray, which the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, BAFTA, Critics' Choice and Screen Actors Guild all awarded him with the Best Actor award. He also experienced success musically with Kanye West, joining him and Twista for the #1 single “Slow Jamz” in 2003 and reprising his Ray Charles role on Kanye’s #1 single “Gold Digger” in 2005. In December 2005, Foxx released his second album, Unpredictable, which achieved double platinum status after it topped the Billboard 200 chart one week after debuting at #2.

Foxx has appeared in several hit movies such as Dreamgirls, Django Unchained and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He also released several albums and singles, including his 2008 hit “Blame It” with T-Pain, which won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group in 2010. In January 2007, Foxx started The Foxxhole channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2012, and in 2017, he began hosting the music game show Beat Shazam, where his oldest daughter Corinne served as the show’s DJ since its second season. In September 2007, Foxx was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2021, he released his autobiography Act Like You Got Some Sense: And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me.