Editing Lauryn Hill (section)

===1991–1993: Career beginnings===
While a [[freshman]] in high school,<ref name="Foege"/> through mutual friends, [[Pras|Prakazrel "Pras" Michel]] approached Hill about a music group he was creating.<ref name=encyclopedia358/><ref name=nmepictures>{{cite web|title=Lauryn Hill In Pictures – The Story So Far|url=https://www.nme.com/photos/lauryn-hill-in-pictures---the-story-so-far/307177/3/1|website=[[NME]]|date=May 7, 2013|access-date=June 7, 2013|archive-date=February 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202155912/http://www.nme.com/photos/lauryn-hill-in-pictures---the-story-so-far/307177/3/1|url-status=live}}</ref> Hill and Pras began under the name Translator Crew. They came up with this name because they wanted to rhyme in different languages.<ref name=encyclopedia358/> Another female vocalist was soon replaced by Michel's cousin, multi-instrumentalist [[Wyclef Jean]].<ref name=encyclopedia358/> The group began performing in local showcases and high school talent shows.<ref name="Foege"/> Hill was initially only a singer, but then learned to rap too; instead of modeling herself on female rappers like [[Salt-N-Pepa]] and [[MC Lyte]], she preferred male rappers like [[Ice Cube]] and developed her [[Flow (rapping)|flow]] from listening to them.<ref name="nw-allison"/> Hill later said, "I remember doing my homework in the bathroom stalls of hip-hop clubs."<ref name="teen"/>

While growing up, Hill took acting lessons in [[Manhattan]].<ref name="nyt-so"/> She began her acting career in 1991 appearing with Jean in ''Club XII'', MC Lyte's [[Off-Broadway]] hip-hop rendering of Shakespeare's ''[[Twelfth Night]]''.<ref name="Foege"/> While the play was not a success, an agent noticed her. Later that year, Hill began appearing on the soap opera ''[[As the World Turns]]'' in a recurring role as troubled teenager Kira Johnson.<ref name="time-Farley" /><ref name="teen"/> She subsequently co-starred alongside [[Whoopi Goldberg]] in the 1993 release ''[[Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit]]'', playing Rita Louise Watson, an inner-city Catholic school teenager with a surly, rebellious attitude.<ref name="time-Farley" /><ref name="Foege"/> In it, she performed the songs "[[His Eye Is on the Sparrow]]" (a duet with [[Tanya Blount]]) and "[[Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee|Joyful, Joyful]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit – Original Soundtrack |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sister-act-2-back-in-the-habit-mw0000107580|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=June 7, 2013|archive-date=August 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822095909/http://www.allmusic.com/album/sister-act-2-back-in-the-habit-mw0000107580|url-status=live}}</ref>

Director [[Bill Duke]] credited Hill with improvising a rap in a scene: "None of that was scripted. That was all Lauryn. She was amazing."<ref name="time-Farley" /> Critic [[Roger Ebert]] called her "the girl with the big joyful voice", although he thought her talent was wasted,<ref>{{cite web|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sister-act-2-back-in-the-habit-1993|publisher=rogerebert.com|access-date=June 29, 2013|archive-date=February 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203213913/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sister-act-2-back-in-the-habit-1993|url-status=live}}</ref> while ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' said she "performed marvelously against type ... in the otherwise perfunctory [film]".<ref name="Foege"/> Hill also appeared in [[Steven Soderbergh]]'s 1993 motion picture ''[[King of the Hill (1993 film)|King of the Hill]]'', in a minor but pivotal role as a 1930s gum-popping elevator operator. Soderbergh biographer Jason Wood described her as supplying one of the warmest scenes in the film.<ref name="wood-book">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Jason|title=Steven Soderbergh|year=2002|publisher=[[Pocket Essentials]]|location=Harpenden, Hertfordshire|isbn=1-903047-82-X|page=35}}</ref> Hill graduated from Columbia High School in 1993.