| Lauryn Hill  Born: 26-May-1975
Birthplace: South Orange, NJ
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: Black
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer, Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Soul/hip hop singer and producer Born to a middle class family in New Jersey, Lauryn Hill displayed a talent for singing very early in her life, enough to motivate her involvement in an "Amateur Night" competetion at the Apollo Theater at the age of 13, where she sang the Smokey Robinson tune Who's Loving You?. It was through acting that she first broke into the entertainment business, however, securing a role on the daytime soap opera As The World Turns while still attending high school. By this time she had already formed the hip-hop trio Tranzlator Crew with friends Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, but her work with the band had to wait on openings in her acting schedule and her later enrollment at Columbia University.
In 1993 Hill broke into feature films with an appearance in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit; later that year her trio (now re-named The Fugees) released their debut Blunted on Reality through the Columbia subsidiary RuffHouse. Sales of the album were disappointing and nearly brought about the dissolution of the band, but the Fugees stuck it out for a tour and attempted a second release. This arrived in 1996 as The Score, a multi-platinum crossover hit that earned the band a pair of Grammy awards. A cover of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly (featuring Hill's husky croon) made a particular impact on the record-buying public.
After The Score, Hill took time away from The Fugees to continue her education and to start a family. During this time she also founded The Refugee Camp Youth Project, a charitable organization focused on the needs of underprivileged inner-city children. Her bandmates both embarked on solo careers in her absence, and 1998 Hill returned to action with her own solo offering The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill -- another crossover success, this time earning her five out of the eleven Grammys for which she was nominated. The tour in support of the album proved equally popular. An extended hiatus from both music and acting took place in the years after the album, and it wasn't until 2002 that a follow-up was presented in the form of a live "Unplugged" recording. The loose, unpolished quality of the performance guaranteed that it would not be as well-received as its predecessor, but that appears to have been the singer's intention. Father: Mal Hill (computer consultant)
Mother: Valerie Hill (teacher)
Brother: Melaney
Husband: Rohan Marley
Son: Zion David Marley (b. 1997)
Daughter: Selah Louise Marley (b. 1998)
Son: Joshua Marley (b. 2002)
High School: Columbia High School, Maplewood, NJ
University: Columbia University
The Fugees Vocalist (1993-97)
Grammy Best Rap Album (with Fugees 1996)
Grammy Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal (with Fugees 1996)
Grammy Best R&B Album (1998)
Grammy Best Rhythm & Blues Song (1998)
Grammy Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1998)
Grammy Best New Artist (1998)
Grammy Album Of The Year (1998)
Tax Evasion 7-Jun-2012 (guilty plea)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Concerning Violence (17-Jan-2014) [VOICE]
Block Party (12-Sep-2005) · Herself
Restaurant (17-Apr-1998) · Leslie
Hav Plenty (11-Sep-1997) · Debra
Rhyme & Reason (5-Mar-1997) · Herself
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (10-Dec-1993) · Rita Watson
King of the Hill (20-Aug-1993) · Elevator Operator
Official Website:
http://www.laurynhill.com/
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