Universal Pictures’ Snoop Dogg biopic, Snoop, has added four more names to its stacked cast: Tre Hale, Bentley Green, SwayvoTwain and G Perico.
Hale, who appears on the Netflix crime series Nemesis, will portray infamous record executive Suge Knight, the larger-than-life co-founder of Death Row Records, the label that helped bring rap and hip-hop into the mainstream through albums by Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. The label eventually unraveled following the high-profile departures of Snoop and Dre in the late 1990s. Knight was later sentenced to 28 years in prison for manslaughter after a fatal hit and run in 2015 near a promotional shoot for the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton.
SwayvoTwain, born Michael D’Angelo Archer II and the son of late R&B stars Angie Stone and D’Angelo, will play Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G. Despite the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that defined the era, Snoop and Biggie shared a mutual respect and friendship in the mid-1990s, and Snoop has appeared on all three of Biggie’s posthumous albums, including 1999’s Born Again, which gave Biggie a posthumous No. 1 on the Billboard 200. SwayvoTwain confirmed the casting himself on Instagram, writing “It’s all good baby, BABYYY.” Snoop marks his first major film role.
Bentley Green will play RBX, born Eric Dwayne Collins, who signed with Death Row in the ’90s alongside his cousin Snoop and went on to a rap career spanning three decades. G Perico rounds out the new additions as Big Reecie Cup, a key figure who helped guide Snoop’s rise out of Long Beach.
The four join a cast that already includes Jonathan Daviss (Outer Banks) as Snoop Dogg, Myles Bullock as Dr. Dre, Camron Jones as Tupac Shakur, Algee Smith as Warren G, Lauren London as Snoop’s late mother Beverly Tate, Laya DeLeon Hayes as Snoop’s wife Shante Broadus, Olly Sholotan as Kurupt, Corey Champagne as Nate Dogg and Jonica Booth as The Lady of Rage.
Described as the definitive biopic of the entertainment mogul and icon, Snoop traces how Calvin Broadus Jr. emerged from Long Beach in the 1990s under the name Snoop Doggy Dogg, bringing his laid-back delivery and sharp lyrics to Death Row Records and working with Dr. Dre on his breakout debut album Doggystyle, before broadening into other ventures and platforms, from cooking segments with Martha Stewart to his memorable turn poolside with Michael Phelps during NBC and Peacock’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Dolemite Is My Name) is directing, having replaced Allen Hughes (Menace II Society), who was previously attached. Brewer also reworked the script, originally written by Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther). Snoop Dogg is producing through his Death Row Pictures banner, alongside Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer (8 Mile) and Allan Mandelbaum, and Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker. The film is the first project under Death Row Pictures’ overall deal with NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios, with senior VP of production development Ryan Jones and director of development Tony Ducret overseeing for the studio.
Production is set to begin in mid-September in and around Los Angeles. Universal will release Snoop in theaters August 6, 2027. Snoop Dogg joins Tupac, Biggie, Eminem, 50 Cent and N.W.A among the hip-hop icons to receive the biopic treatment.