Ice Cube

Name at birth: O'Shea Jackson

Ice Cube went from being an innovative and controversial rapper to being a movie star famous for the successful franchises that sprouted from the movies Friday (1995) and Barbershop (2002, with Cedric The Entertainer). Ice Cube co-founded the hip-hop group N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) in the late 1980s, along with rapper Eazy-E and producer Dr. Dre. Their 1989 album, Straight Outta Compton, is considered one of the most influential rap recordings in history, and N.W.A.'s brand of "gangsta rap" dominated hip-hop music into the early '90s. Ice Cube's subsequent solo albums have been just as popular, including Amerikka's Most Wanted (1990), Lethal Injection (1993) and War & Peace, vols. 1 and 2 (1998-2000). His performance in the 1991 movie Boyz N the Hood (co-starring Laurence Fishburne) proved he also had the makings of a movie star, and now he's known in films as an actor, writer, producer and director (he has also directed several music videos). His films include: Anaconda (1997, with Jennifer Lopez); Three Kings (1999, starring George Clooney); Ghosts of Mars (2001); Torque (2004); and Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004).