During the course of our Voters’ Choice campaign, we will highlight each of our nominees in a feature blog post. This week, we focus on two-time Oscar nominee, Will Smith.
Most of us know Will Smith from his various film roles, which range from the action-oriented Independence Day to the comical Men in Black series to more serious fare, like his Oscar-nominated performances in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.
His accomplishments as an actor (and prior to that as a musician who, along with DJ Jazzy Jeff, won the first-ever Grammy for rap music) have earned him much success, but it is his family focus and charitable work that got the attention of The Pixel Project team.
Father of three children and happily married since 1997 to fellow actor Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith has said that “…a man and a woman together, raising a family, is the purest form of happiness we can experience.”
Not only is he a family man, he is also an influential role model who hosted the Presidential Inaugural Celebration for Youth as part of the Gala for President Bill Clinton in 1993, and was requested by Nelson Mandela to host his 2005 AIDS benefit concert in South Africa. Along with his wife, Mr. Smith also co-hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2009.
The couple also created the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation to support inner-city youth, with a focus on education, prevention of violence and community development. In 2006, the foundation was given the David Angell Humanitarian Award by the American Screenwriters Association. Through their foundation, the Smiths have supported the Lupus Foundation of America and YouthBuild, which helps young people learn job skills while completing their high school education. The couple has also supported literacy programs through HELP and recently donated artwork to raise money for the UN’s World Food Programme to benefit school children in Haiti.
You can read more about Will Smith and cast your vote and sign the petition for him at our campaign pages and join the Team Smith Facebook page for updates on the campaign . The campaign ends 17 June 2010, so cast your vote before then and be sure to sign the petition too, since it will be delivered directly to Mr. Smith if he is one of the winning nominees.
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References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jada_Pinkett_Smith#Charity_work_and_politics;
http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/150-will-smith; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000226/bio; http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20308814,00.html.