Pinkett Smith starred with actor and comedian Eddie Murphy in the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor, portraying the love interest of a kind-hearted university professor who is morbidly obese.
The film was a commercial success, earning $25 million in its first weekend in North America; it eventually made $274 million worldwide.
She also had a role in Set It Off (1996), a crime drama about four women who rob banks to escape from poverty, opposite Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise.
Her acting in the film was noted in the San Francisco Chronicle, where they said she was "the one to watch".
Budgeted at $9 million, Set It Off made $41 million globally.

In 1997, Pinkett Smith had a cameo role in Scream 2 as a college student who is brutally murdered in front of hundreds of cinemagoers.
The film made more than $100 million at the North American box office.
In 1998, she played a news reporter in the thriller Return to Paradise, with Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn, and took on the title role of an extroverted woman, alongside Tommy Davidson, in the comedy Woo.
While giving positive reviews to her performance in Woo, Derek Armstrong of AllMovie stated that the script was "formulaic" and "not much of a vehicle for its impish starlet".
She next starred in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled (2000), as a personal assistant to the main character portrayed by Damon Wayans.
Although the film met with mediocre reviews, it won the Freedom of Expression Award by the National Board of Review.

In 2001, Pinkett Smith portrayed a loud-mouthed wife in the moderately successful comedy Kingdom Come, with LL Cool J, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, and Whoopi Goldberg.
In the biographical sports drama Ali (also 2001), she played Sonji Roi, the first wife of boxer Muhammad Ali, opposite Will Smith.
While she loved the final product, she initially did not think she was the right person for the role: "I felt like because we were a couple off screen, for people to see us together on the screen in a movie like this, would take people out of the movie, that people would see Will and Jada there — they wouldn't see Ali and Sonji".

Perhaps her best-known role to date is the part of human rebel Niobe in the films The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), sequels to 1999's The Matrix, and the related video game Enter The Matrix (2003).
The character was written specifically with Pinkett Smith in mind.
Directly after she filmed her scenes for Ali, Pinkett Smith flew to Australia to work on the Matrix sequels.
The sequels earned over $91 million and $48 million during their North American opening weekends, respectively.
Pinkett Smith starred with actor and comedian Eddie Murphy in the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor, portraying the love interest of a kind-hearted university professor who is morbidly obese. The film was a commercial success, earning $25 million in its first weekend in North America; it eventually made $274 million worldwide. She also had a role in Set It Off (1996), a crime drama about four women who rob banks to escape from poverty, opposite Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. Her acting in the film was noted in the San Francisco Chronicle, where they said she was "the one to watch". Budgeted at $9 million, Set It Off made $41 million globally.
In 1997, Pinkett Smith had a cameo role in Scream 2 as a college student who is brutally murdered in front of hundreds of cinemagoers. The film made more than $100 million at the North American box office. In 1998, she played a news reporter in the thriller Return to Paradise, with Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn, and took on the title role of an extroverted woman, alongside Tommy Davidson, in the comedy Woo. While giving positive reviews to her performance in Woo, Derek Armstrong of AllMovie stated that the script was "formulaic" and "not much of a vehicle for its impish starlet". She next starred in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled (2000), as a personal assistant to the main character portrayed by Damon Wayans. Although the film met with mediocre reviews, it won the Freedom of Expression Award by the National Board of Review.
In 2001, Pinkett Smith portrayed a loud-mouthed wife in the moderately successful comedy Kingdom Come, with LL Cool J, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, and Whoopi Goldberg. In the biographical sports drama Ali (also 2001), she played Sonji Roi, the first wife of boxer Muhammad Ali, opposite Will Smith. While she loved the final product, she initially did not think she was the right person for the role: "I felt like because we were a couple off screen, for people to see us together on the screen in a movie like this, would take people out of the movie, that people would see Will and Jada there — they wouldn't see Ali and Sonji".
Perhaps her best-known role to date is the part of human rebel Niobe in the films The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), sequels to 1999's The Matrix, and the related video game Enter The Matrix (2003). The character was written specifically with Pinkett Smith in mind. Directly after she filmed her scenes for Ali, Pinkett Smith flew to Australia to work on the Matrix sequels. The sequels earned over $91 million and $48 million during their North American opening weekends, respectively.
Jada Pinkett Smith