Jill Scott

Jill Heather Scott (born April 4, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, model, poet, and actress. Her 2000 debut album, Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1, went platinum and the follow-ups Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 (2004) and The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (2007) both achieved gold status. Scott made her film debut in 2007 in Hounddog and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?. In 2008, she starred in the BBC/HBO series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, based on the novels of the same name by Alexander McCall Smith. After a four-year hiatus from music, Scott released her fourth album, The Light of the Sun, in 2011. In 2014, she starred in the film Get on Up as Deidre "Dee Dee" Jenkins, the second wife of James Brown. In 2015, she released her fifth album, Woman. Beginning in 2018, Scott appeared in The CW DC Comics superhero series Black Lightning as Lady Eve. Early life Scott was born on April 4, 1972, in Philadelphia. She grew up an only child in a North Philadelphia neighborhood, raised by her mother, Joyce Scott, and her grandmother. She recalls her happy childhood, saying she was "very much a loved child". Jill Scott's maternal ancestry has been traced to the Jola people of Guinea-Bissau. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. After graduating from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Scott attended Temple University. While working two jobs she studied secondary education. She planned to become a high school English teacher. However, after three years of study and then working as a teacher's aide, Scott became disillusioned with a teaching career and she dropped out of college.