Jennifer Hudson Artistfacts

September 12, 1981
Jennifer Hudson rose to fame after coming in seventh on American Idol in 2004.
As an actress she is best known for portraying Effie White in the 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls, for which she won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Hudson beat 782 actresses for her role in Dreamgirls including American Idol (2002) winner Fantasia Barrino. She later recalled:

"I never gave up hope of playing Effie. They'd talk to me and then look at other people and then come back to me... but I always had the faith. I had to separate myself from the process and not think about it too much or I'd go crazy."
Hudson's performance of the Dreamgirls song "Love You I Do", won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
On October 24, 2008, Hudson's 57-year-old mother, Darnell Donnerson and 29-year-old brother, Jason, were shot and killed in their home by her sister's estranged husband. Her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was kidnapped by the killer and his body was found on Chicago's West Side three days later. Hudson's song "I Remember Me" is based on a diary entry written by her just after the tragic event.
She made her first public appearance following the tragedy at the Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 13, 2013.
In 2015 Hudson made her Broadway debut in the role of Shug Avery in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple.
Hudson made her debut as a coach on the talent show The Voice UK on January 7, 2017.
With a win for A Strange Loop in the best new musical category at the 2022 Tony Awards, Jennifer Hudson, one of the show's co-producers, joined a select group of entertainers who've received all four of the major American entertainment awards (EGOT).

Prior to A Strange Loop, Hudson won:

An Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for Dreamgirls.

The Grammy Award for Best R&B Album for her 2008 self-titled debut studio album (she picked up her second Grammy in 2017 for Best Musical Theater Album for her work on The Color Purple).

A Daytime Emmy Award in 2021 for Interactive Achievement as an executive producer of the VR animation Baba Yaga.
Hudson got her own talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, in 2022. Her first guest was Simon Cowell, who was a judge during her American Idol run.
During an interview on the podcast Your Mama's Kitchen: Conversations from the Heart of Home, Jennifer Hudson said her father, a driver for Greyhound bus lines, was absent from her childhood. When she reconnected with him at age 14, she learned he had 26 other children.

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