Marques Houston

Early life

Marques Barrett Houston was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, to Michael and Carolyn Houston. He is also the older cousin of B2K's J-Boog. Houston began acting at an early age.

Music beginnings

In 1992, Houston became a founding member of the R&B group Immature (also known as IMx). The members of the group includes Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos (later replaced by Kelton "LDB" Kessee), along with Chris Stokes, who is acting for his job as their manager. At this period, Houston went by the nickname "Batman". In 1999, the group underwent a name change, however, it continued on to release two albums under the name IMx such as Introducing IMx (1999) and IMx (2001). The group also branched out into recording some soundtracks to the film House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute, and a television series A Different World) before disbanding in 2002.

2003–05: MH and Naked

In 2003, Houston began pursuing a solo career. Using his birth name, Marques Houston, he released his debut album, MH, on October 21, 2003. The album featured the singles "That Girl", "Clubbin'" (featuring Joe Budden), "Pop That Booty" (featuring Jermaine Dupri) and "Because of You". In the United States charts, MH peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 and at number 5 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On May 24, 2005, Houston released his second solo album, Naked. The album featured the singles "All Because of You" (featuring Young Rome), "Naked" and "Sex Wit You". In the United States, Naked peaked at number 13 on the Billboard and peaked at number 5 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

2006–07: Veteran

Houston released his third solo album, Veteran, on March 20, 2007. The album featured the singles "Like This" (featuring Yung Joc), "Favorite Girl", "Circle" and "Wonderful". In the United States, Veteran debuted (and peaked) at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and debuted at number 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, marking this release as Houston's first number-one solo album.

2009–10: Mr. Houston, Mattress Music and IMx reunion

Houston released his fourth solo album, Mr. Houston on September 29, 2009. It featured the singles, "I Love Her" and "Sunset". Videos for the album tracks "Body" and "Date" were released online in 2008. "How I Do" and "Case of You" received video premieres in 2009, followed by a video for "Tonight" in 2010. On September 14, 2010, Houston released his fifth studio album, Mattress Music, which contained the singles "Kickin' & Screamin' and "Pullin' on Her Hair". A video for a third, "Ghetto Angel" premiered in 2011. Houston announced on 106 & Park that IMx planned to record another group album together for 2011.

2012–2013: Famous

In October 2012, Marques Houston announced a new studio album, Famous slated for release August 27, and released "Speechless" as a promotional preview via free digital download. The first single off the new album is "Give Your Love a Try" featuring Problem made available on iTunes.

Featured projects

Houston continues to work with former bandmate Jerome "Romeo" Jones (as of 2004 who was known as Young Rome). Houston made guest appearances on Jones' album Food for Thought (2004) on songs titled "Sexapade" and "What Cha Doin' Tonight", while Jones made a guest appearance on Houston's album Naked on the song titled "All Because of You". The two also collaborated on "For Your Love", a song from an unreleased album by Young Rome. Houston made guest appearances on fellow TUG Entertainment artist Mila J's single "Good Lookin' Out" and Yung Joc's single "1st Time"; he made appearances in both music videos. Houston featured on 50 Cent's remix to the hit single "Candy Shop", which also featured wss the group Dame Four.

Acting career

Houston made his acting debut in the animated comedy film Bébé's Kids (1992) in which he was the voice of Khalil, the leader and oldest child of the titular "Bébé's Kids". Houston later appeared in House Party 3 (1994), where he played a fictional version of himself along with fellow Immature bandmates Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos. In the film, they portrayed Kid's trouble-making younger cousins who aspire to become musicians. Houston's breakthrough role came when he won the part of Roger Evans in the television comedy show Sister, Sister, playing the next-door neighbor of identical twin sisters Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell (Tia and Tamera Mowry). Marques played the role for five of the show's six seasons. The show wrote his character out of the script during the fifth season, but he made a guest appearance in the series finale. In 1997, he had a brief cameo in the movie "Good Burger", a spin-off from a sketch on the Nickelodeon show "All That" starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. He played Jake, Kenan's friend. Houston and his IMx (formerly Immature) band members made an appearance in Destiny's Child music video for the single "No, No, No Part 1" off their 1998 album The Writing's on the Wall. In 1999, shortly after Houston's run on the Sister, Sister show ended, Marques had a brief cameo in Destiny's Child's video rendition of The Writing's on the Wall single Jumpin', Jumpin' directed by Joseph Kahn.

He also played the character Elgin Barrett Eugene Smith III in the 2004 film You Got Served. Following You Got Served, in both live-action and voiceover, he portrayed Dumb Donald in the film adaptation of Fat Albert, based on Bill Cosby's popular cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. From 2005 to 2006, Houston starred in his own television series, Cuts as Kevin Barnes, which was a spin-off of One on One. Despite good ratings, the show only lasted two seasons due to UPN merging with The WB to become The CW which caused Cuts along with many other UPN shows to get cancelled. In 2007 Houston starred in the horror film Somebody Help Me. He then starred in the sequel, Somebody Help Me 2 in 2010. In 2012 Houston starred in a kids hip hop dance battle film, Battlefield America. He portrayed Sean Lewis, an ad executive who serves as a dance teacher after receiving a sentence of community service; however, he does not dance in the film.He Also Stars In A Weekend With The Family with Karrueche Tran.

Personal life

Houston's mother died from lymphoma in 1997. In 2007, pictures began surfacing of Houston and his T.U.G labelmate, singer Jamila "Mila J" Chilombo (formerly of the R&B groups Gyrl and Dame Four), kissing and holding hands. It was said in some reports that the pictures were old and that Houston and Chilombo had already broken up. Chilombo is the sister of singer Jhené Aiko. Also in 2007, blogs began reporting that Houston was engaged to My Wife and Kids actress Jennifer Freeman. The two starred together in the 2004 film You Got Served. This report was neither confirmed nor denied by Houston or Freeman.

In March 2010, Omarion posted pictures on the social website Twitter of Houston and his girlfriend Marlena celebrating their two-year anniversary. Houston became a Jehovah's Witness in 2016.

Discography