Jennifer Kate Hudson is an American Singer and actress. Jennifer was born on 12 September 1981, to Darnell Donnerson and father Samuel Simpson. She was raised along with two older siblings in Chicago, Illinois, US. Jennifer is 36 years of age and has a height of 5 feet and 9 inches. She is of Black ethnicity and American nationality.
Jennifer attended and graduated from Dunbar Vocational High School in 1999. She enrolled at Langston University Oklahoma but transferred after a semester to Kennedy-King College in Chicago because she was too homesick and hated the weather.
Jennifer, who is a gifted singer, started performing in the church choir from the age of 7. Julia started doing community theatre because of an inspiration from her maternal grandmother. By the time, Jennifer had already had a five-year binding record contract with Righteous Records, Chicago, in January 2002. Fortunately, she was released from the contract in 2004 so she could compete in the American Idol (2004).
Though she never reached the Top 7 in the third season of American Idol, she has been claimed by the Los Angeles Times as the third greatest Idol contestant behind season one winner Kelly Clarkson and season four winner Carrie Underwood. She was signed for the role of Effie in the movie Dreamgirls (an adaptation of theatre production Dreamgirls) on November 2005 after her appearance on Americal Idol.
Her first appearance on a record was a duet 'The Future Ain't What It Used to Be' with Meat Loaf's 10th studio album Bat Out of Hell iii: The Monster is Loose. Her breakthrough came after she appeared in the role of Effie in the movie Dreamgirls that also starred Beyonce, Eddie Murphy, and Jamie Foxx in January 2007.
Her self-titled album was released in September 2008 by Arista Records, two years after she had signed the record deal in November 2006. After that, she released two more albums: I Remember Me (2011) and JHUD (2014). Before that, she also has an extended playlist Spotlist, released 2005.
She has appeared in many movies and television series. She appeared in Sex and the City as Louise in 2008, Winnie Mandela (2011 as the title character), as Gloria in the movie The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (2013), and others. She has also voiced the character Young Nana Noodleman in the animated movie Sing (2016). She was last seen in the movie Monster as Mrs. Harmon in 2018.
Apart from American Idol, she has been part of The X Factor, The Voice UK, and The Voice US. She has also been the part of television series Smash, Empire, Confirmation (TV film) and others.
Jennifer has been nominated 78 times, among which she has won 38 awards in both music and acting category. Her first win was Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls (2006). She also won the Golden Globe Award, British Academy Film Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics' Choice Movie Awards for the same movie later the same year. Her Jennifer Hudson music album won her Best R&B Album of the Year at the Grammy awards 2009.
Jennifer Hudson has had a long time affair with her boyfriend James Payton since she was 18. They dated from 1999 to 2007. After their breakup, she dated boyfriend David Otunga and got engaged in September 2008. In August 2009, they became parents to a baby boy David Daniel Otunga, Jr. She split with her boyfriend Otunga in late 2017 along with a restraining order to the Ex.
Jennifer does timely tours across the US and around the world. Though her salary is not mentioned, her current estimated net worth is around $20 million.
