Cynthia Erivo has joined the cast of Snoop, Universal Pictures’ biopic of Snoop Dogg, and will portray Afeni Shakur, the Black Panther activist, political prisoner, and mother of Tupac Shakur, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter both report exclusively. Jonathan Daviss, known for Netflix’s Outer Banks, leads the cast as Snoop Dogg, with production currently underway in Southern California.
Born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina in 1947, Afeni Shakur moved to the Bronx with her mother as an 11-year-old and joined the Black Panther Party in 1968 after hearing Bobby Seale speak, becoming a central figure in the organization’s New York chapter. She was later one of the defendants in the Panther 21 trial, acting as her own legal counsel while pregnant with Tupac and ultimately winning acquittal on all charges. Her activism and the system she fought against shaped Tupac directly, most famously immortalized in his song “Dear Mama.” The film centers her as a complex figure in her own right, not simply a supporting presence in her son’s story.
The ensemble also includes Myles Bullock Be as Dr. Dre, Lauren London as Snoop’s late mother Beverly Tate, Camron Jones, known for Amazon’s Panic, as Tupac Shakur, Algee Smith as Warren G, Tre Hale as Suge Knight, Laya DeLeon Hayes as Snoop’s wife Shante Broadus, Olly Sholotan as Kurupt, Corey Champagne as Nate Dogg, Jonica Booth as The Lady of Rage, and SwayvoTwain.
Craig Brewer, who recently directed Song Sung Blue for Focus Features, directs Snoop from his own rewrite of Joe Robert Cole’s original script. Snoop Dogg produces alongside Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Allan Mandelbaum, and Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker, with the film incorporating music from Snoop Dogg’s catalog throughout. Snoop marks the first project under Death Row Pictures’ overall deal with NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios, with Universal set to release the film theatrically August 6, 2027.
For Erivo, the role continues a significant run tied closely to Universal, following her performance as Elphaba in the studio’s Wicked franchise, which earned her Golden Globe, SAG, Critics’ Choice, NAACP, BAFTA, and her third career Academy Award nomination. She’s also set to star in and executive produce the film adaptation of Prima Facie, which premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and releases in UK and Irish cinemas November 13, and appears in Paramount’s YA fantasy film Children of Blood and Bone, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and featuring Viola Davis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, Amandla Stenberg, Damson Idris, Regina King, and Lashana Lynch, arriving January 15, 2027.
With a cast this deep now assembled around one of hip-hop’s most consequential and complicated stories, Snoop enters production carrying real weight to do justice to figures like Afeni Shakur, whose history extends well beyond the music industry alone.