Janet Jackson

Singer/Actor Born in Gary, Indiana, the youngest of ten children, Janet Damita Jo Jackson was raised a strict Jehovah's Witness. She was not quite three years old when her brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael—managed by their father Joseph Jackson—signed a recording contract with Motown Records and began releasing a string of #1 singles as the Jackson 5. By the time she was 10 Janet's family had moved to California and she was appearing on the Jacksons' TV variety show. Through the 1980s she was Penny on the hit sitcom Good Times and also appeared on the TV version of Fame. She came into her own as a recording artist (and as a young woman) with her third solo release, the 1986 album Control, produced with pop-funk masterminds Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Following up with 1989's groundbreaking Rhythm Nation, and the sexy 1993 album janet, Miss Jackson solidified her status as a pop icon and superstar of the highest rank. She has won 5 Grammy Awards, sold more than 100 albums worldwide, and starred in films from the 1993 hip-hop romance Poetic Justice, opposite the late Tupac Shakur, to Tyler Perry's 2010 adaptation of For Colored Girls. In the wake of her superstar brother Michael's untimely death in 2009, Janet's strength and poise has helped her famous family endure tragedy.