Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys is a singer, songwriter, and pianist with a few acting credits to boot.
Alicia Augello-Cook was raised in Hell's Kitchen and had her first brush with fame in early childhood-at age five she played one of Rudy Huxtable's friends on The Cosby Show. She graduated early from Manhattan's Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 16 and signed her first record deal, with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label, but she ditched him for Clive Davis' J Records, and released her debut album in 2001. Songs in A Minor, caused an industry-wide stir and turned the singer into an instant R&B megastar, selling 11 million copies and earning her five Grammy awards and many copycats on American Idol. She followed up two years later with The Diary of Alicia Keys-the album's single "If I Ain't Got You" was on the Billboard charts for over a year, and in addition to hits from subsequent albums As I Am and Element of Freedom, she scored big in 2009 teaming up with Jay Z for the omnipresent "Empire State of Mind."
Like so many musicians before her, Keys has decided that she wants to act. She made her film debut as a lesbian assassin in Smokin' Aces and also appeared in 2007's poorly-received The Nanny Diaries alongside Scarlett Johansson, but seems to have put the acting on hold after The Secret Life of Bees.
After years of keeping her relationships under-the-radar, the very-pregnant Keys married music producer Swizz Beatz in 2010 and popped out their first child a few months later. [Image via Getty]