JADA PINKETT SMITH

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

While these days Jada Pinkett Smith’s name is most often in connection with her successful television show, Red Table Talk, she has had a long and impressive acting career. She got her first big break in 1991 as a series regular on TV’s A Different World. In 1996 she starred as Eddie Murphy’s love interest in The Nutty Professor, a role that officially put her on the path to stardom. Since her beginnings in the ’90s, she has continued to take on parts in both film and television, including leading roles in TV shows including Gotham and Hawthorne and big-budget feature films like Girls Trip and the Madagascar franchise.

Variety recently reported that Pinkett Smith is set to star in the upcoming drama film Redd Zone which will be released by Netflix. Redd Zone is based on the true story of Tia Magee (Pinkett Smith), who stepped in to help her teenage sons, and their high school football teammates cope with their grief in the wake of their friend, Dominic Redd’s, murder. According to the Variety article, 17 of the boys on the football team ended up moving in with Magee, and she helps all of them get into college. Four of the young men even went on to have major NFL careers. In addition to starring in the film, Pinkett Smith is also set to co-produce it.

Redd Zone isn’t the only exciting project Pinkett Smith has on the horizon. She is also set to reprise her role as Niobe from the original The Matrix trilogy (she appeared in the second and third films in the trilogy) in the upcoming new addition to the franchise: The Matrix 4. While the plot for The Matrix 4 is currently unknown, Lana Wachowski returned to write and direct the picture. Her sister, Lilly, with whom she co-created, and co-directed the first three films was unable to take part in the fourth film due to scheduling conflicts. The majority of the original cast are also returning, and we’re getting some exciting new faces too. The Matrix 4 is expected to come out December 22, 2021.