Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol. She made her film debut as Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls in 2006, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Since then, she has appeared in various films, and stage plays. She also serves as a coach on both the UK and the US versions of the reality series The Voice, and since 2022, has hosted her own talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show. She is known to have been deeply inspired by iconic musicians, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. Having received numerous accolades for her work in music, film, television, and theater, Hudson became the youngest woman and third African-American recipient of all four major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT) in 2022. Time magazine even named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.

Jennifer Hudson was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She had her start in performing at age 7 by singing with the church choir and doing community theater with the help of her late maternal grandmother, Julia. Hudson later attended Langston University for a semester but left due to homesickness and registered at Kennedy–King College back in her hometown. In 2002, she signed her first recording contract with Righteous Records, which later released her from the contract so that she could appear on American Idol in 2004.