Queen Latifah Says Will Smith Was the Key to ‘Living Single’

A Rap-to-TV Revolution

When Living Single premiered in 1993, it quickly became a cultural touchstone — a witty, stylish sitcom centering on six friends navigating life, love, and careers in Brooklyn. For Queen Latifah, the show’s star and one of its executive producers, the path to that milestone began years earlier, with inspiration from another rapper-turned-actor: Will Smith.

Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996) proved that a hip-hop artist could front a hit sitcom, commanding both mainstream appeal and cultural relevance. In interviews with Variety and Cheat Sheet, Queen Latifah has been explicit: “It was because of Will that that [we did Living Single].” Watching his success, she and her team thought, “Hey, if Will can do it, we can do it!”

Inspiration Meets Strategy

The admiration wasn’t just personal — it was professional strategy. Like Fresh Prince, Living Single featured an ensemble cast, focused on urban African-American life, and celebrated hip-hop culture’s style and values. Queen Latifah told Variety the show spoke directly to their generation’s “hustle” and drive, aligning perfectly with the cultural moment Will Smith had helped create.

The First Big Break

Will Smith’s influence on Living Single was more than symbolic. He gave Queen Latifah her first acting role, casting her in the 1991 Fresh Prince episode “Working It Out.” She had never acted on television before, and under the guidance of director Ellen Falcon — who, as she told Cheat Sheet, “pretty much taught me how to act” — she gained the skills and confidence that would carry into her own series.

When Living Single eventually went into production, Falcon joined as a director, creating a direct throughline from Queen Latifah’s TV debut to her sitcom breakthrough. Reflecting on that first role in an In The Envelope interview, Queen Latifah said Smith “changed my life.”

Changing the Rules for Rappers on Screen

Both Queen Latifah and Will Smith were part of a new wave of rappers who broke into acting in the early ’90s, changing perceptions of what hip-hop artists could achieve. Living Single became proof that this crossover could work beyond one success story, helping pave the way for artists to transition from music to TV and film while maintaining authenticity.

A Relationship That Lasts

More than 30 years later, the friendship and mutual respect between Queen Latifah and Will Smith continue. She’s hinted at future collaborations, including a possible Queen Latifah biopic, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s important to see how it all happened from people who were actively in the room.” That room, in many ways, began with a Fresh Prince set and a single guest role that sparked a sitcom legacy.

If you’d like, I can also create a side-by-side cultural impact timeline of Fresh Prince and Living Single showing how Will Smith’s influence and Queen Latifah’s career moves intertwined. That would make this story even stronger visually.