Jamie Foxx

A major star on television (In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show), the big screen (Any Given Sunday, Collateral, Ray, Miami Vice, Dreamgirls), and radio (his second album, Unpredictable, featured two Top Ten R&B singles), Jamie Foxx -- born Eric Morlon Bishop, Jr., in Terrell, TX -- started out as a comedian and went through years of gradually escalating notoriety before winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray. Though a 1994 album, Peep This, was something of an underground hit, he didn't really break out as a singer until his guest appearance on Kanye West and Twista's "Slow Jamz." The song helped set the stage for his second album, released through J Records at the very end of 2005. Upon release, Unpredictable duked it out for the number one position on the Billboard albums chart with Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough. It reached number one and eventually went platinum. Intuition, involving input from the-Dream, Timbaland, Ne-Yo, and Floetry's Marsha Ambrosius, followed in late 2008. Like its predecessor, it topped the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, led by "Blame It," one of 2009's biggest party singles. Near the end of 2009, Foxx issued his fourth album, Body. The artist has also collaborated with Gladys Knight, Melvin Riley, Adina Howard, MC Lyte, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg.