Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, and television personality. 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. She was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.

In her recording career, Hudson rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of the reality series American Idol, in which she placed seventh. She signed with Arista Records to release her self-titled debut studio album (2008), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and won Best R&B Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. She made her film debut as Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls (2006), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and became the youngest African-American recipient of the award.

Hudson's second and third studio albums, I Remember Me (2011) and JHUD (2014), both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200. Outside of her recording career, she was cast in further acting roles such as Sex and the City (2008), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Winnie Mandela (2011), Black Nativity (2013), Sing (2016), Cats (2019) and Respect (2021), the television shows Smash (2012), Empire (2015) and Confirmation (2016). She made her Broadway acting debut with the 2015 iteration of the musical, The Color Purple. Hudson has also contributed as a coach on both the UK and the US versions of the reality series The Voice from 2017 to 2019, and became the first female coach to lead a winning team on the former. Since 2022, she has hosted her own talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show.