Cynthia Erivo Will Play Tupac's Mother in the Snoop Dogg Biopic
Universal's "Snoop" has cast Cynthia Erivo as Afeni Shakur — the former Black Panther who defended herself in the Panther 21 trial and later ran Tupac's estate. Jonathan Daviss plays Snoop; Camron Jones plays Tupac. The two family stories are now the same film.
The Snoop Dogg biopic just acquired its second family's gravity. Cynthia Erivo has been cast as Afeni Shakur — Tupac's mother — in Universal's Snoop, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and confirmed in coverage by TheWrap and Entertainment Weekly. It's the biggest name yet attached to the film, and it changes what the film is: not only a Death Row origin story, but the story of the two mothers on either side of it.
The cast as it stands
Jonathan Daviss plays Snoop Dogg; Camron Jones plays Tupac Shakur. Around them, per EW's cast reporting: Lauren London as Snoop's mother, Beverly Tate; Laya DeLeon Hayes as his wife, Shante Taylor; Myles Bullock as Dr. Dre; Algee Smith as Warren G; Tre Hale as Suge Knight; Olly Sholotan as Kurupt; Corey Champagne as Nate Dogg; Jonica Booth as Lady of Rage; and SwayvoTwain as the Notorious B.I.G. Craig Brewer directs, from his rewrite of Joe Robert Cole's script.
The production structure is stacked the way these films now are: it's the first project under Death Row Pictures' overall deal with NBCUniversal, produced by Brian Grazer and Allan Mandelbaum of Imagine Entertainment alongside Snoop Dogg himself and Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker, and it incorporates music from Snoop's own catalogue.
Why this casting is the story
Afeni Shakur's life is a biopic inside the biopic. Per EW's background reporting: she joined the Black Panther Party in 1968, was arrested in the Panther 21 case in 1969, represented herself at trial and was acquitted, then — after her son's death in 1996 — became executor of Tupac's estate and the steward of his catalogue until her own death in 2016. Casting an actor of Erivo's weight in that role signals the film intends to use it as more than connective tissue between rap history's famous men. It also sets up the film's built-in symmetry: two mothers, Tate and Shakur, raising the two artists whose friendship and label defined an era — and Erivo, notably, plays the one whose son the audience knows doesn't survive it.
No release date has been announced. We will follow production as dates and further casting are confirmed by the studio; everything above is from the casting reports as published this week, and roles beyond Erivo's are as EW lists them.
Sources
- TheWrap, "Cynthia Erivo cast as Afeni Shakur in Snoop biopic" (Nov. 4, 2026) — the casting (first reported by THR), the Death Row Pictures/NBCUniversal deal framing, producers, Brewer/Cole credits, music catalogue note. https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/cynthia-erivo-afeni-shakur-snoop-biopic-craig-brewer/ — opened in full Nov. 5, 2026.
- Entertainment Weekly, cast report on "Snoop" — the full cast map as listed and the Afeni Shakur background (Panther Party 1968, Panther 21 arrest 1969, acquittal, estate executor, died 2016). https://ew.com/cynthia-erivo-will-play-tupac-mom-in-snoop-dogg-biopic-12236953 — opened in full Nov. 5, 2026.
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