Snoop Dogg’s biopic is shaping up to be an all-star affair, with Aaron Paul and Giovanni Ribisi joining the cast.
As spotted on XXL, Universal Pictures’ Snoop has cast Camron Jones as Tupac Shakur, SwayvoTwain as The Notorious B.I.G. and Myles Bullock Be as Dr. Dre. Jonathan Daviss will play the Long Beach rapper, born Calvin Broadus Jr., and Lauren London will play his mother, Beverly Tate.
Daviss broke out as Pope Heyward, the book-smart member of the Pogues on Netflix’s Outer Banks, and also appeared in Do Revenge. “Jonathan is the whole thing, man,” Snoop told Entertainment Tonight at the 2025 BET Awards. “He’s a dynamic actor. He’s a great spirit and he’s a learner.”
Daviss told Who What Wear that Snoop invited him to shadow him so he could pick up on his mannerisms and see how he joked around. “I didn’t want to do a Snoop Dogg impression,” Daviss said. London and Snoop go back to 2004, when she appeared in the video for “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and helped cast it while working as the director’s assistant. “I cast half of my friends,” she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, adding that her cousins made it into the video, too. Two years later, she broke out as New-New in ATL and went on to appear in The Game and You People.
Tate, who died in 2021, directed a church choir. Snoop credits her with helping raise him in church, where he started performing. “My momma gave me the name,” Snoop told Esquire, recalling that Snoopy was his favorite Peanuts character growing up. Bullock Be, whose credits include BMF and the 2023 remake of White Men Can’t Jump, celebrated the casting on Instagram. “LA Kid playing an LA Legend,” he wrote. Dre introduced Snoop to a wider audience on 1992’s “Deep Cover,” featured him throughout The Chronic that same year and produced his 1993 solo debut, Doggystyle. Algee Smith and Corey Champagne will play Warren G and Nate Dogg, Snoop’s groupmates in 213.
Jones, best known for Prime Video’s Panic, will play one of Snoop’s closest collaborators at Death Row. Snoop and 2Pac first met at a wrap party for Poetic Justice in 1993 and went on to record “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” together. “Tupac was first and foremost the homeboy,” Snoop said when he inducted him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
SwayvoTwain, born Michael D’Angelo Archer II, is a recording artist and the son of the late D’Angelo and Angie Stone. He appeared on MTV’s Family Legacy, and Snoop marks his first major movie role. Biggie was the face of Bad Boy during its feud with Death Row. Snoop told XXL that when he said he was cool with Biggie and Puffy in an Angie Martinez interview, it caused tension with 2Pac.
The cast also includes Wicked star Cynthia Erivo as Afeni Shakur, 2Pac’s mother and a former Black Panther, and The Equalizer’s Laya DeLeon Hayes as Shante Broadus, Snoop’s high school sweetheart and wife. Hercy Miller will play his own father, Master P, who signed Snoop to No Limit Records in 1998 after he left Death Row. Deadline also reported that Breaking Bad alum Aaron Paul will play Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope Records co-founder whose company distributed Death Row’s early releases. Giovanni Ribisi, whose credits include Avatar and Sneaky Pete, has also joined the cast.
Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) directs from his rewrite of Joe Robert Cole’s screenplay. Snoop is producing alongside Brian Grazer and Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker, and the film will feature music from Snoop’s catalog. Snoop opens in theaters August 6, 2027.
