by Bob Strauss

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It seems as if Will Smith has grown up before our very eyes--in fact, he has. Smith was just a teen when he won the first rap Grammy as the latter half of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. And he was still a kid when he took that persona to television as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

During the sitcom's six-year run, Smith became both a man and a legitimate actor. By the time he made his film debut, in Six Degrees of Separation, Smith amazed fans and critics with his dramatic depth as a male prostitute who cons rich New Yorkers into thinking he's Sidney Poitier's son

Now, Smith has all of Hollywood thinking he's Poitier's heir--at least professionally. Thanks to the surprise hit Bad Boys and the blockbuster Independence Day, Smith has become a box-office force--and his reputation should be cemented by Men in Black, a rollicking sci-fi comedy about immigration agents who police visitors from space.

Also, check out: Backstage with MIB aliens

Exec-produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty), MIB is widely regarded as the best big effects movie of an overcrowded and underperforming summer, and Smith's sassy performance is one of its main selling points.

The product of a middle-class Philadelphia upbringing, the 28-year-old Smith still appears headed for bigger and better things. Yet even as he oozes charismatic confidence, he seems refreshingly unimpressed with himself. (And this from a guy who dates Jada Pinkett.)

The minute you meet him, Smith has a way of making you think he likes you just as easily--and as much--as he likes himself. Which is as good a definition of raw star power as any.