Photo: YouTube screenshot
Chante Adams
Roll out the red carpet for Chanté Adams. The actress' first feature film, Roxanne Roxanne, is set to debut on Netflix on March 23 and is earning the Detroit native some serious buzz.
The 22-year-old had recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University's drama school when she tried out for the lead role in the hip-hop biopic and got it.
"To get called back, for my first movie, it didn’t really set in until I got the final call back and I thought, 'Oh, OK. This is something that could actually happen,'" she told WWD.com.
Adams got her start as an actress at Detroit's Cass Technical High School. She told Broadway World, "My first introduction to theatre began my first day of freshman year at Cass Technical High School. I auditioned for a student-directed production just because a friend of mine was auditioning. Since it was the very first day of high school she was the only person in the class that I knew, and her leaving meant I wouldn't have anyone to talk to so I followed her into the black box theatre to wait for her to get done. My then drama teacher/now lifetime mentor, Marilyn McCormick, told me I had to audition if I was going to sit in there so I did ... and now, here I am!"
The film depicts the early life of Lolita "Roxanne Shanté" Gooden, who at age 14, became one of the most feared battle MCs in Queens, New York, while "defending herself from the dangers of the streets of the Queensbridge Projects."
Produced by Forest Whitaker and Pharell Williams, it also stars Nia Long and Moonlight's Mahershala Ali. The film made big waves at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where Adams was awarded with the 2017 Sundance Special Jury Prize for Breakthrough Performance.
Watch the trailer for the film below.
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