Though he comes from Texas, Jamie Foxx (real name Eric Bishop), who began playing piano at the age of five, attended the United States International University in San Diego on a classical piano scholarship he received in 1985. He moved to Los Angeles in 1989.

Foxx played in a Prince cover band before taking up acting and landing on the TV show In Living Color. He played Ray Charles in the bio film Ray, in which he played all the piano parts himself. He later founded his own Fox City Records label and has been active reviving the TV show Showtime at the Apollo, which ended in 2008 before being picked up by the BET network in 2011.