Jonathan Daviss To Play Snoop Dogg In Craig Brewer-Directed Biopic At Universal

Filmmaker Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) and Universal Pictures are behind an upcoming biopic about Snoop Dogg, and they’ve cast an actor to play the iconic West Coast rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr..

According to a casting update from Deadline, “Outer Banks” actor Jonathan Daviss has been hired in the role of the beloved musician.

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Snoop has quite the career, starting to rap in his teens with NWA‘s Dr. Dre becoming a bit of a mentor as he became extremely popular amid the raging beef between West and East Coast rappers (leading to death of friend and fellow Death Row Records artist Tupac Shakur), alongside the popularization of gang culture, becoming a huge part of the hip-hop scene. The rapper had a run-in with the law as Snoop was charged with murder in 1993 after his bodyguard McKinley Lee shot and killed a rival member of a gang in his car (Snoop was ultimately acquitted in 1996).

Since those gang-affliated days Snoop has put his energy into supporting youth sports like football, a steady acting career appearing in “Training Day” and the vampire flick “Day Shift,” took over Death Row Records, developed an infectious friendship with Martha Stewart, and maybe more notably is best known for his obsession with cannabis as its inhertantly part of the rapper’s branding these days.

His gangster rap image has changed significantly since the 1990s, allowing him to develop commercial partnerships, including producing this upcoming film with Universal.

Brewer and Snoop have worked together previously on the Netflix comedic biopic “Dolemite Is My Name,” which starred Eddie Murphy as the wise-cracking comedian who was on a mission to star in a string of action movies.

Daviss isn’t the only person to attempt playing Snoop on the big screen, as LaKeith Stanfield from the series “Atlanta” previously did in the NWA biopic “Straight Outta Compton.”

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Of course, there are plenty of other actors to be cast, given that this project will likely see Snoop Dogg interacting with the likes of Dre, Tupac, and other rappers of the era, along with the infamous Suge Knight in the new biopic.