Willow Smith

Willow Smith is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Her older brothers are Jaden Smith and Trey Smith. As children, Willow and her siblings served as youth ambassadors for Project Zambia, a humanitarian initiative supporting Zambian children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

In June 2019, Smith said that she is bisexual and expressed equal love for men and women. She also discussed her support for polyamorous relationships. She dated musician Tyler Cole beginning in 2016, and the relationship later ended. Smith is a practicing Hindu and has followed the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Smith began acting as a child, making her feature-film debut alongside her father in I Am Legend (2007). She appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008), voiced young Gloria in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), and played the younger version of Keke Palmer's character in True Jackson, VP. She later provided voices for projects including Neo Yokio, Adventure Time, and We Baby Bears.

At age nine, Smith released "Whip My Hair," which reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a multiplatinum recording. She signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation in 2010, becoming the label's youngest artist. After follow-up singles including "21st Century Girl" and "Fireball," she became uncomfortable with the pressures of performing. During her 2012 Whip My Hair tour, she shaved her head as an act of protest and decided not to play the title role in the filmed version of Annie.

Smith released her debut album, Ardipithecus, in 2015, followed by The 1st in 2017 and Willow in 2019. Her music moved away from commercial pop and incorporated R&B, alternative rock, dream pop, psychedelic soul, jazz, and funk. "Wait a Minute!" from Ardipithecus became a sleeper hit after gaining popularity on TikTok and was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

Smith formed the duo Melodic Chaotic with DJ Fabrega in 2013 and later worked closely with Tyler Cole. Their collaborative album The Anxiety was released in 2020 after the pair participated in a 24-hour performance-art piece inside a glass box at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The album produced "Meet Me at Our Spot," which became a top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2021, Smith adopted a pop-punk direction on Lately I Feel Everything. Its single "Transparent Soul" featured Travis Barker, while Avril Lavigne appeared on "Grow." Smith continued the heavier rock-influenced sound on Coping Mechanism (2022), which received a Metacritic score classified as "Universal Acclaim." Her 2024 album Empathogen moved toward jazz, funk, Indian, and experimental influences and received two Grammy Award nominations.

From 2018 to 2023, Smith co-hosted Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch with Jada Pinkett Smith and her grandmother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. The intergenerational talk show addressed subjects including mental health, politics, and sexuality. It won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informative Talk Show in 2021, and Smith also received recognition for her hosting.

Smith co-wrote the historical fantasy novel Black Shield Maiden with Jess Hendel. The book was published by Penguin Random House in 2024, and the pair discussed plans for two sequels. Smith has also appeared in campaigns for Chanel, Cartier, and Mugler, and became known for gender-neutral fashion and distinctive hairstyles.