1996
Set It Off
A crime drama centred on four friends.
FLM.REDJADA PINKETT
SMITH
เจดา พิงเก็ตต์ สมิธ
A career across drama, comedy and imagined worlds
From Set It Off to Niobe in The Matrix.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Finding room for different voices
Born in Baltimore in 1971, Jada Pinkett Smith studied dance and theatre at the Baltimore School for the Arts. She moved into screen acting with television roles, including Lena James in A Different World, before appearing in Menace II Society in 1993.
Her 1990s film work moved between comedy and crime drama. In The Nutty Professor she played opposite Eddie Murphy, while Set It Off placed her among four friends whose choices drive a tense story of robbery and survival.
As Niobe, Pinkett Smith entered The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003 and returned in The Matrix Resurrections in 2021. The later film revisits the character as a leader facing a changed relationship between humans and machines.
Her other work includes voicing Gloria in Madagascar and joining the ensemble comedy Girls Trip. She has also produced screen projects and co-hosted Red Table Talk, extending her work beyond acting.
Roles across genres
2003–2021
The Matrix
Niobe returns across three films in the series.
2017
Girls Trip
An ensemble comedy built around friendship.
Performance readings are FLM.RED editorial interpretation.
Films in FLM.RED
Titles in this collection; not a complete filmography.
Sources & image notes
Portrait illustration: FLM.RED.