Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook on January 25, 1980) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, music video director, philanthropist, and author.

She’s 28!

She has sold over forty-one million albums and singles worldwide as of 2007, and has won numerous awards, including nine Grammy Awards, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards.

Keys was born in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, in New York City, New York, to Teresa “Terri” Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Keys’ mother is of Irish, Scottish, and Italian descent and her father is Jamaican.

Keys’ parents separated during her early childhood, and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell’s Kitchen, also in Manhattan. In 1985, Keys and a group of other girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable’s sleepover guests in an episode of The Cosby Show called “Slumber Party”. She began playing the piano when she was seven, learning classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, and her favorite, Chopin.

Keys graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, as valedictorian at the age of sixteen. Although accepted to Columbia University, she decided to drop out and pursue her musical career.

Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri and his So So Def label, then distributed by Columbia Records. She co-wrote and recorded a song entitled “Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)”, which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 blockbuster, Men in Black. The song was Keys’ first professional recording; however, it was never released as a single and her record contract with Columbia Records ended quickly.

Keys later met Clive Davis, who signed her to Arista Records, which has since disbanded. Following Davis to his newly-formed J Records label, she recorded the songs “Rock wit U” and “Rear View Mirror”, featured on the soundtracks to the films Shaft (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) respectively. Keys then released her debut album, Songs in A Minor.

During the early 2000s, Keys made small cameos in such television series as Charmed and American Dreams. In early October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the “Mission to Mars” episode of the children’s television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang the song “Almost Everything Is Boinga Here”. Keys guest starred as herself in the “One Man Is an Island” episode of the drama series Cane, first aired on November 6, 2007.

Keys made her big-screen debut in early 2007 in the crime film Smokin’ Aces, co-starring as an assassin named Georgia Sykes opposite Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, Common, Andy Garcia, Taraji P. Henson, Jeremy Piven and Ryan Reynolds. Keys received much praise from her co-stars in the film; Reynolds said that Keys had “natural” acting ability as he was surprised she had not starred in films before.

Keys earned further praise for her second film outing, The Nanny Diaries—based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus—, released on August 24, 2007, in which she co-stars alongside Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans as Lynette, Johansson’s character Annie’s best friend. Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Community College was used to film the college graduation scene for the film.

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