Background: Williams was born on April 5, 1973, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the oldest of three sons of Pharaoh Williams, a handyman, and his wife Carolyn, a teacher. His roots extend for generations in Virginia and North Carolina, and one of his ancestors journeyed to West Africa in 1831, prompting other relatives to emigrate from America to Liberia in 1832. He met Chad Hugo in a seventh-grade summer band camp where Williams played the keyboards and drums and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were also both members of a marching band; Williams played the snare drum while Hugo was drum major.
Context: On March 31, 2014, Williams was announced as a new coach for the seventh season of The Voice, replacing CeeLo Green. On May 18, 2015, Team Pharrell had 16-year-old Sawyer Fredericks win the eighth season of The Voice. In June 2014, it was announced that Williams would make a guest appearance on the docu-series Sisterhood of Hip Hop. Williams was the executive producer of Atlanta rapper T.I.'s ninth studio album, Paperwork, which was released on October 21, 2014 by Grand Hustle and Columbia Records. In May 2014, Williams curated an art show named after his album, "Girl," at the Galerie Perrotin in Paris, France. The show included 37 artists including Takashi Murakami, JR, Daniel Arsham, and Marina Abramovic among others." Comme des Garcons developed a unisex fragrance with Williams scheduled for release in late 2014. Kaws designed the bottle artwork.  In January 2015, Williams and Al Gore announced that they are teaming up to create a 7-continent "Live Earth" concert on June 18 to raise awareness about and pressure governments to act on climate change. He is the musical director. On February 8, 2015, Williams made a cameo in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Walking Big & Tall" where he comes to Springfield to write a new anthem for the town. Williams recorded three songs for the soundtrack to the animated film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. He also recorded a song "Shine" with Gwen Stefani for the Paddington movie. At the 2015 Grammy Awards Williams performed an orchestral rendition of "Happy" with composer Hans Zimmer and pianist Lang Lang that included a tribute to the Black Lives Matter "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" movement inspired by Eric Garner's death and the events in Ferguson, Missouri. In 2015, a unanimous jury determined that Williams's 2013 hit song "Blurred Lines" was an infringement of the 1977 Marvin Gaye song "Got to Give It Up". The jury awarded the Gaye family $7.4 million in damages for the copyright infringement based on profits generated.  In October 2015, the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University named Williams as their artist-in-residence. He gave the 2017 commencement address at NYU and received an honorary degree on May 17, 2017.  Also in October 2015, Williams announced that he will perform with a gospel choir on Sunday, November 1, at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black parishioners were shot and killed on June 17, allegedly by a young white man who is awaiting trial. This is part of a program on race relations being produced by A+E Networks and iHeartMedia. Williams plans to speak with community leaders and others affected by the shooting, which dominated the U.S. news media for several days. The two-hour Shining a Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America program is scheduled to air November 20, and will also feature a concert to be filmed November 18 in Los Angeles. A goal of the program is to raise money for the victims of racial violence and for organizations around the country working to promote racial equity.
Question: Has he won any awards during this time?
Answer: He gave the 2017 commencement address at NYU and received an honorary degree on May 17, 2017.

Background: Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress, director, and producer. Foster began her professional career as a child model when she was three years old in 1965, and two years later she moved to acting in television series, when she debuted the sitcom Mayberry R.F.D. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she worked in several primetime television series and starred in children's films. Foster's breakthrough came with Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), in which she played a teenage prostitute and at the age of 14, received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Context: Foster's first project of the new decade was Keith Gordon's film Waking the Dead (2000), which she produced. She declined to reprise her role as Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001), with the part going instead to Julianne Moore, and concentrated on a new directorial project, Flora Plum. It was to focus on a 1930s circus and star Claire Danes and Russell Crowe, but had to be shelved after Crowe was injured on set and could not complete filming on schedule; Foster unsuccessfully attempted to revive the project several times in the following years. Controversially, she also expressed interest in directing and starring in a biopic of Nazi film director Leni Riefenstahl, who did not like the idea. In addition to these setbacks, Foster shut down Egg Pictures in 2001, stating that producing was "just a really thankless, bad job". The company's last production, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002. It received good reviews, and had a limited theatrical release in the summer.  After the cancellation of Flora Plum, Foster took on the main role in David Fincher's thriller Panic Room after its intended star, Nicole Kidman, had to drop out due to an injury on set. Before filming resumed, Foster was given only a week to prepare for the role of a woman who moves with her daughter to a house fitted with a panic room, which they have to use on their first night due to a home invasion. It grossed over $30 million on its North American opening weekend in March 2002, thus becoming the most successful film opening of Foster's career as of 2015. In addition to being a box office success, the film also received largely positive reviews.  After a minor appearance in the French period drama A Very Long Engagement (2004), Foster starred in three more thrillers. The first was Flightplan (2005), in which she played a woman whose daughter vanishes during an overnight flight. It became a global box office success, but received mainly negative reviews. It was followed by Spike Lee's critically and commercially successful Inside Man (2006), about a bank heist on Wall Street, which co-starred Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. The third thriller, The Brave One (2007), prompted some comparisons to Taxi Driver, as Foster played a New Yorker who becomes a vigilante after being seriously injured and losing her fiance and dog in a random street attack. It was not a success, but earned Foster her sixth Golden Globe nomination. Her last film role of the decade was in the children's adventure film Nim's Island (2008), in which she portrayed an agoraphobic writer opposite Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin. It was the first comedy that she had starred in since Maverick (1994), and was a commercial success but a critical failure. In 2009, she provided the voice for Maggie in a tetralogy episode of The Simpsons titled "Four Great Women and a Manicure".
Question: How did she respond?
Answer:
Foster unsuccessfully attempted to revive the project several times in the following years.