Jill Scott Biography

Jill Scott was born in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Initially, Jill attended university with the goal of becoming a high school English teacher, but her earliest experiences in the classroom led to a change in her plans. Initially, her career in music began with her experimentations as a spoken word artist, but after Amir “Questlove” Thompson of the band the Roots viewed one of her performances, he invited her to collaborate on a song for an upcoming album. The result was her co-writing debut on the single “You Got Me,” which solidified Jill Scott’s new career path.

“You Got Me” ultimately earned a Grammy for the Roots and Erykah Badu, and soon after Jill Scott took to the stage as an artist and singer. Scott’s debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1, arrived at the turn of the millennium, and brought Jill her first Grammy nomination in 2003. Jill’s unique infusion of jazz, spoken word, hip hop, and R&B resulted in an ever-growing fan base, and additional albums quickly followed: Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 (2004), The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (2007), and The Light of the Sun (2011.) The albums spawned a series of highly successful tours as well: Words and Sounds Tour (2011), Buzz Tour (2004), Big Beautiful Tour (2005), Sugar Water Festival Tour (2005), The Real Thing Tour (2008), Maxwell & Jill Scott: The Tour (2010), Summer Block Party (2011-2012), and An Evening with Jill Scott (2011-2012.)

In addition to her contributions to music, Jill Scott has also appeared in a number of films, including: Cavedweller (2004), Hounddog (2007), Baggage Claim (2013), both Why Did I Get Married? Films (2007 and 2010), and the television remake of the film Steel Magnolias (2012.) Jill Scott has also appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Fringe, and provided the voice to the X-Men character Storm on BET’s Black Panther. Of course, Jill Scott continues to explore poetry and spoken word on its own, and her poems have been published in the book The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours, released in 2005.

Jill Scott continues to perform, record, and act. She also actively supports her own charity, the Blues Babe Foundation, designed to assist minority students with university scholarships and financial aid.