Danai Gurira Set To Play Tupac’s Mom Afeni Shakur In ‘All Eyez On Me’ 

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‘Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira Set To Play Tupac’s Mom Afeni Shakur In ‘All Eyez On Me’

EXCLUSIVE: As soon as her samurai sword-swinging Michonne character entered

it was clear Danai Gurira would be an actress to watch. Now, she’s gotten a major feature role: she’ll play Afeni Shakur in the Morgan Creek Tupac Shakur biopic

. She joins a film that is already underway in Atlanta, with Open Road distributing. The film is directed by Benny Boom, and Demetrius Shipp Jr plays Tupac.

Newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr. Cast As Tupac As Biopic Begins Filming

In Afeni Shakur (who is an exec producer on the film and the keeper of the flame on her son’s estate), Gurira plays a complex woman. A political activist and member of the Black Panthers, Afeni raised her son to be a voracious reader with a political awareness that informed his development as a street poet. The film covers Tupac’s rise to stardom as a hip-hop artist and actor, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial stint at Death Row Records, where he was steeped in the East Coast/West Coast rap war. It took a long time for this film to make it to the start line. But the timing seems fortuitous after the out-sized grosses of another hip-hop origin story,

. The film is produced by James G Robinson and David Robinson of Morgan Creek Productions, along with LT Hutton.

, which opened off-Broadway with Lupita N’Yongo starring, moves to Broadway in March, and her play

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AWESOME Dania! Just don’t get killed off TWD!

She is a wonderful actress and I’m sure she will do a fantastic job with the role but I need my Michonne on TWD.

So happy for my girl! This is going to be a great year for her with this role, her play going to Broadway, and TWD. Woo-hoo!

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