Jada Pinkett Smith's Real Name: Jada Koren Pinkett

Quick answer: Jada Pinkett Smith's documented original name is Jada Koren Pinkett. Biography.com lists the fuller married form Jada Koren Pinkett Smith and dates her birth to September 18, 1971, in Baltimore, Maryland. Encyclopedia.com independently records Jada Koren Pinkett and the same date and city (Biography; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Jada Pinkett Smith. Both sources agree that she was born Jada Koren Pinkett on September 18, 1971, in Baltimore. Encyclopedia.com names her parents as contractor Robsol Pinkett, Jr.—though it notes that some sources cite Robson—and nurse Adrienne Banfield, and says her parents later divorced. It also records that she attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where one of her schoolmates was Tupac Shakur, and later the North Carolina School of the Arts. Biography.com says she majored in dance and theater at the Baltimore school. Biography.com likewise places the birth in Baltimore and uses the same full original name.

Career highlights

Biography.com says she appeared on the sitcom A Different World in 1991 and was launched to wider stardom in Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor. Encyclopedia.com independently dates A Different World to 1991–93 and lists early films including Menace II Society (1993), Jason's Lyric, and Set It Off, the last with Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox. Later, both sources point to her work in The Matrix films; Encyclopedia.com specifies The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, in which she played Niobe, and Biography.com adds the Madagascar franchise, which Encyclopedia.com dates to 2005. Encyclopedia.com emphasizes the range of that later career, from action to comedy. Biography.com also records a role as Sonji in Ali, a part in Michael Mann's Collateral (2004), the series Hawthorne (2009–11), which brought an NAACP Image Award, later films including Magic Mike XXL (2015), Bad Moms (2016), and Girls Trip (2017), Gotham (beginning in 2015), and that she later co-hosted the talk series Red Table Talk. Encyclopedia.com dates her marriage to Will Smith to December 31, 1997; Biography.com also records the 1997 marriage. She has continued to work under the professional name Jada Pinkett Smith.

Name notes for searchers

Jada Koren Pinkett is the documented original name; the professional name is Jada Pinkett Smith. Searchers looking for A Different World, The Nutty Professor, or The Matrix films are usually aiming at the same person.