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Nona Marvisa Gaye (born September 4, 1974 in Washington, D.C.) is an American singer, former fashion model, and screen actress. With ex-boyfriend Justin Martinez, Gaye has a son named Nolan, who was born in June 1997.

Early life and career

Gaye is the daughter of African-American soul music legend Marvin Gaye. Her mother, the former Janis Hunter, is of Irish, Afro-Cuban and Greek descent. Nona's grandfather is Cuban jazz great Slim Gaillard.

Nona released her first album, Love for the Future, on Atlantic Records in 1992, a month after her 18th birthday. The album featured the top 20 hit "I'm Overjoyed" as well as "The Things That We All Do For Love". The following year, Nona was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. She signed to Ford Modeling Agency in 1994, and became the new face of Armani.

For three years, Gaye both collaborated with and dated singer-songwriter Prince, then known as . During this time, she recorded at least 4 known songs with him. A duet, "1000 Hugs and Kisses" and solo track, "Snowman" are currently unreleased, but have made their way into circulation amongst fans. Another duet, "Love Sign", was released on the 1-800-NEWFUNK compilation album in 1994, along with another track with no contribution, "A Woman's Gotta Have It". Gaye provided backing vocals on "We March" for 's 1995 album, The Gold Experience, and on the title track to the Girl 6 soundtrack, released in 1996. In addition to these projects, she starred in a -produced European TV special called The Beautiful Experience, consisting of a loose storyline to promote new material from (most of which would be released at some point over the next few years). She was also mentioned on the track "Return of the Bumpsquad", on the New Power Generation album, Exodus, as wanting "to sell her tape", indicating a possible album's worth of material with .

Later career

Nona appeared alongside other artists to re-record and release her father's single, "What's Going On" for AIDS research in 2001. The same year, she began her acting career, debuting in Michael Mann's Ali. In 2002, she replaced Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash shortly after the filming of the Matrix sequels began, for the role of Zee, the wife of Harold Perrineau Jr.'s character Link.

In July 2006, Gaye was added to the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a replacement for Courtney B. Vance as the new Assistant District Attorney. However, just as the series began production for its sixth season, [1] she left the show, citing "creative differences". Gaye was replaced by Theresa Randle.

Filmography

• Ali (2001)
• The Matrix: Reloaded & The Matrix: Revolutions (2003)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• XXX: State of the Union (2005)
• Crash (2005)
• The Gospel (2005)

External links

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