Janelle Monáe
Biography
Life Story
Janelle Monáe is an American musical recording artist, actress and model signed to her own imprint, Wondaland Arts Society, and Atlantic Records.
She was born in Kansas City, Kansas, to Janet, a janitor, and Michael Robinson Summers, a truck driver. In 2010, Monáe released her first full-length studio album, The ArchAndroid. In March 2012, "We Are Young" by Fun., on which Monáe appears as a guest vocalist, reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, her first appearance in the US Top 10. Monáe's music has garnered her six Grammy Award nominations.
She has excelled at film acting and picking roles, having had major parts in Moonlight (2016), Hidden Figures (2016), Lady and the Tramp (2019) and Harriet (2019). In 2020, she will play the lead in the horror film Antebellum (2020).
Family
No info available
Trivia
She made her film debut in 2016, co-starring in Moonlight (2016) and Hidden Figures (2016). Both films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture at The Oscars (2017), with Moonlight (2016) ultimately winning the accolade.
Received the "Breakthrough Award" at the 10th annual Essence Black Women In Hollywood event, February, 2017.
Counts Octavia Butler as one of her favorite authors.
Is a huge science fiction fan who grew up watching "The Twilight Zone" religiously on television.
Reporter Umberto Gonzales thinks Monáe is the perfect actress to play the X-Men character Dazzler, rather than Taylor Swift. Halston Sage briefly played Dazzler in X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
(February 5, 2020) She is recovering from mercury poisoning which she got after eating a pescatarian diet.
She attended the Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia. It is a performing arts school, and the oldest African-American theater in Philadelphia.
Personal Quotes
I've always wanted people to ask questions about the music. Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings. I appreciate that as a writer because sometimes the mystery, when it's gone, is not as interesting. I love the mystery behind things.
I feel myself becoming the fearless person I have dreamt of being. Have I arrived? No. But I'm constantly evolving and challenging myself to be unafraid to make mistakes.
[observation, 2014] I'd be honored to experiment more with holograms and maybe make a whole band - but I love my band. I wouldn't want them to be holograms.
I've never viewed myself as "just" a musician or singer. I'm a storyteller who wants to tell untold, meaningful, universal stories in unforgettable ways. I want to do it all, study it all and find my place in it.
I had a strong visceral reaction to the Moonlight (2016) script, partly because I felt I knew all of these characters. I grew up with a drug dealer like Juan in my neighborhood who was a mentor to local young people. I had a family member who was addicted to crack, like Paula. Chiron himself reminded me of my little cousin - they were all characters I could relate to from my upbringing. And I've played the role of Teresa in real life: my family and friends always have a shoulder to lean on with me.
We have to do something about gun laws. And we also have to do something about police brutality towards African American people. We need more allies. People need to continue to speak out about the way African American people are being treated. An injustice to one black man or woman is an injustice to everybody.
My grandmother had 11 children and although we didn't have a whole lot of money, what we did have was a lot of love. My grandmother was the matriarch. If you didn't have a place to stay, if you needed food, if you were just coming out of jail or rehab, you went to her. Watching her in our family and our wider community was what inspired me and still does.
