Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer and actress. Having received numerous accolades for her work in music, film, television, and theater, Hudson became the youngest woman and third African-American recipient of all four major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT) in 2022. She was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. Hudson rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of the reality series American Idol, wherein she placed seventh. She signed with Arista Records to release her self-titled debut studio album (2008), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and won Best R&B Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Her second and third studio albums, I Remember Me (2011) and JHUD (2014), both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200; the latter was released by RCA Records. She signed with Interscope Records to release her fourth album, The Gift of Love (2024), her first solo project in a decade. She made her film debut as Effie White in the musical Dreamgirls (2006), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and became the youngest African-American recipient of the award. She has since portrayed Aretha Franklin in the musical biopic Respect (2021) and acted in films such as Sex and the City (2008), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Winnie Mandela (2011), Black Nativity (2013), Sing (2016), Cats (2019), and Goat (2026). She also has appeared in shows such as Smash (2012), Empire (2015) and Confirmation (2016). On stage, she acted in the Broadway musical revival The Color Purple (2015) and won the Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer of A Strange Loop (2022). Hudson has served as a coach on both the British and the American versions of the reality series The Voice from 2017 to 2019, and became the first female coach to lead a winning team on the former. In 2022, her talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, premiered.