Marques Houston

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.[1]

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 self-titled debut album. In 2000, shortly after Houston's run on Sister, Sister 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.[14]

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 voice-over, 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. In 2015, Houston reunited with Sister, Sister co-star Tamera Mowry on the daytime talk show The Real (also with Tia Mowry in 2017) for two episodes.

Houston began his journey into the behind the scenes world of film-making in 2010 partnering with longtime music manager Chris Stokes, who directed most of the films he wrote and produced. As of recently Marques is currently the CEO of a film production company in California, Footage Films; along with fellow IMx band-mate Young Rome (Jerome Jones) as President and relative Jarell Houston, (J-Boog of B2K) as Vice President. Chris Stokes is the chairman of the board and directs the majority of the productions. Marques serves as an Executive Producer and Writer. The majority of the films are mostly made-for-TV features. Following in the paths of filmmakers John Waters, John Singleton and Spike Lee's casting tradition, Houston and Stokes often cast some of their actors more than once in different films portraying different roles. His first full writing and executive producer credit was the 2015 film "Will To Love", starring Keisha Knight Pulliam, Draya Michele, and himself, respectively.[15] He currently is producing a thriller Running Out of Time, starring Tasha Smith, RonReaco Lee, Telma Hopkins that aired in December 2018 on BET.[16] Since the start of this new career, he has written and produced over 10 films so far, including one he co-wrote with Stokes that was released to theaters in 2017, 'Til Death Do Us Part starring Taye Diggs, Stephen Bishop, Annie Ilonzeh and Malik Yoba.[17]

Houston's mother died from lymphoma in 1997.[6] Houston became a Jehovah's Witness in 2016.[18]

Studio albums

• MH (2003)
• Naked (2005)
• Veteran (2007)
• Mr. Houston (2009)
• Mattress Music (2010)
• Famous (2013)