Queen Latifah's Real Name: Dana Elaine Owens

Quick answer: Queen Latifah's real name is Dana Elaine Owens. She was born on March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey. Queen Latifah is a stage name built from a childhood nickname. She is a Grammy-winning rapper and an actress whose role in Chicago (2002) brought an Academy Award nomination (Biography.com; Britannica Kids).

Real name and early life

Biography.com and Britannica Kids both give her name as Dana Elaine Owens, born March 18, 1970, in Newark, New Jersey. The Library of Congress files her as "Queen Latifah, 1970-," with the variant "Owens, Dana Elaine, 1970-." One LOC note gives a March 17 birth date; the March 18 date is the one used by Biography.com and Britannica.

Biography.com says she is the second child of Lance and Rita Owens. When she was eight, a Muslim cousin gave her the nickname Latifah, meaning "delicate" or "sensitive" in Arabic. Britannica Kids says she later adopted the moniker Queen Latifah. In high school she was in the all-female rap group Ladies Fresh. While studying communications at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, she recorded a demo that led to a deal with Tommy Boy Records when she was 18.

Career highlights

In 1988 she released the single "Wrath of My Madness," and in 1989 her debut album, All Hail the Queen, appeared. After Nature of a Sista (1991), she moved to Motown and released Black Reign (1993). The single "U.N.I.T.Y." won a Grammy Award. She later recorded standards on The Dana Owens Album (2004) and Trav'lin' Light (2007).

She made her film debut in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) and costarred in the sitcom Living Single (1993–98). Her portrayal of prison matron Mama Morton in Chicago (2002), opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Later films include Bringing Down the House (2003), which she also produced, Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Girls Trip (2017). She hosted The Queen Latifah Show in 2013–15. On television she has starred in Star (2016–19) and The Equalizer (2021– ). In 2023 she became the first female rapper to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2026 she was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Name notes for searchers

Dana Elaine Owens is her birth name. Latifah began as a childhood nickname and became the stage name Queen Latifah. She has also released music under the billing The Dana Owens Album.