Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (/ˈdʒeɪdə ˈpɪŋkɪt/; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk, for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.

Pinkett Smith landed her big break on the sitcom A Different World in 1991. She went on to star in films such as Menace II Society (1993), The Nutty Professor (1996), Set It Off (1996), and Scream 2 (1997) before her prominent contributions to The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the animated Madagascar films. She returned to television with starring roles on Hawthorne (2009–2011) and Gotham (2014–2017). Her other acting roles include Magic Mike XXL (2015), Bad Moms (2016), Girls Trip (2017), and The Matrix Resurrections (2021).

In 2002, Pinkett Smith launched a music career as the lead singer and songwriter for the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom. In 2004, she published a children's book, Girls Hold Up This World, which landed at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list. Along with her husband Will Smith, she has a production company and has producing credits in films, documentaries, and television series. In 2010, she earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the Broadway musical Fela!.

Early life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jada Koren Pinkett was named after her mother's favorite soap opera actress, Jada Rowland. She is of Jamaican and Bajan descent on her mother's side and African-American descent on her father's side. Her parents are Adrienne Banfield-Norris, the head nurse of a Baltimore inner-city clinic, and Robsol Pinkett Jr., who ran a construction company. Banfield-Norris became pregnant in high school; the couple married but divorced after several months. Pinkett was raised by her mother and grandmother, Marion Martin Banfield, a Jamaican-born social worker. "My grandmother was a doer who wanted to create a better community and add beauty to the world," she said. Banfield noticed her granddaughter's passion for the performing arts and enrolled her in piano, tap dance, and ballet lessons.

Pinkett attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she met and became close friends with her classmate, rapper Tupac Shakur. When Pinkett met Shakur, she was a drug dealer. Her mother had been a heroin addict. She majored in dance and theatre and graduated in 1989. After graduation, she spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts.