Naturi Naughton

Naturi Cora Maria Naughton-Lewis, born May 20, 1984, in East Orange, New Jersey, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress whose career has spanned music, film, and television. Her father, Ezra Naughton, is a retired accountant originally from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and her mother, Brenda, is a part-time paralegal from Raleigh, North Carolina. Naughton's musical development began at age five, when she joined the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, the same church where Whitney Houston performed during her youth. She went on to study at the Newark School of the Arts and attended St. Joseph's Catholic School before graduating from Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair, New Jersey. She later attended Seton Hall University.

At fifteen, Naughton joined Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams to form the R&B trio 3LW in 1999. The group's debut album, 3LW, was released on December 5, 2000, and went platinum, selling 1.3 million copies in the United States. Its first single, "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)," was released in fall 2000 and was followed by "Playas Gon' Play" in early 2001. The group returned in summer 2002 with the P. Diddy-produced single "I Do (Wanna Get Close to You)," featuring Loon. In August 2002, ahead of the group's planned album A Girl Can Mack, Naughton announced her departure from 3LW, stating that the other members and their management had forced her out. Following her exit, Bailon and Williams continued briefly as a duo before Jessica Benson joined as Naughton's replacement. The group has since disbanded. In May 2017, Naughton reunited with Bailon on the daytime talk show The Real.

From 2002 to 2003, Naughton appeared on Broadway in the musical Hairspray. Her acting career expanded significantly in 2008, when she was cast as rapper Lil' Kim in Notorious, a biopic about The Notorious B.I.G. Released in January 2009, the film earned over $43 million worldwide. That same year, Naughton appeared as Denise, an aspiring singer, in the Lionsgate remake of Fame, filmed in New York City and Los Angeles in late 2008. The film opened third at the U.S. box office upon its September 2009 release and earned $77 million worldwide. Naughton recorded five tracks for the Fame soundtrack, released August 25, 2009, and her cover of "Fame" reached number 33 on the UK Singles Chart and the top twenty in Finland, Portugal, and Norway. An extended play, Fame Presents Naturi Naughton as Denise: Didn't I Tell You?, followed in 2010.

In August 2010, Naughton appeared in the AMC drama Mad Men, portraying Toni Charles, a Playboy Bunny, in the episode "Hands and Knees," which aired September 26, 2010. That same month she appeared in the Warner Bros. comedy film Lottery Ticket. In March 2011, she was cast in the NBC drama pilot The Playboy Club, playing Bunny Brenda, a character who aspires to become the first African-American Playboy centerfold. The series premiered September 19, 2011, and was cancelled after three episodes. In October 2011, she appeared as a 1970s jazz club singer named Shadynasty in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In December 2011, Naughton was cast in the Lifetime drama The Client List opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt, playing Kendra, a masseuse. The series premiered April 8, 2012, to 2.79 million viewers, and Lifetime renewed it for a fifteen-episode second season in May 2012.

In September 2012, Naughton starred in the BET original film Let the Church Say Amen, an adaptation of ReShonda Tate Billingsley's 2005 novel of the same name and the directorial debut of actress Regina King. She then took on the role of Tasha St. Patrick, wife of James "Ghost" St. Patrick played by Omari Hardwick, in the Starz drama Power. Her performance earned her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the show's third season. She reprised the role in the spin-off series Power Book II: Ghost, which began airing in September 2020.

On March 8, 2021, it was announced that Naughton had joined the cast of the ABC music series Queens alongside Brandy and Eve, playing Jill "Da Thrill." The series debuted October 19, 2021, and was cancelled after one season. The Queens cast released the promo single "Nasty Girl" on October 1, 2021, with a music video directed by Tim Story, followed on October 18 by "The Introduction," a rap track co-written by Nas. In 2023, Naughton starred in the BET+ action thriller Call Her King. On December 18, 2025, it was announced that she would executive produce and star as Ruby in the Starz action-drama miniseries The Nowhere Man, which premiered January 16, 2026.