Filmmaker Ryan Coogler hails from the East Bay Area of Northern California. In 2011, his student film, “Fig”, which followed a young street prostitute’s fight to keep her daughter safe, won the Director’s Guild of America’s Student Filmmaker Award, as well as the HBO Short Filmmaker Award. He earned his MFA in Film and Television Production at the University of Southern California in May 2011.
Born in Washington, DC on October 22, 1988, Corey Hawkins studied acting at Juilliard before making his big screen debut in 2012 opposite Bow Wow in Allegiance. The next year, he appeared in Iron Man 3 with Robert Downey, Jr., and in Non-Stop with Liam Neeson the year after that.
Here, he talks about his breakout role playing Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about the legendary rap group NWA.
The group N.W.A. highly anticipated biopic, Straight Outta Compton, is a wonderful depiction of the group’s togetherness, troubles, and success.
Straight Outta Compton was such a wonderful success that it made $60.2 million opening weekend, according to Associated Press, making it the biggest opening for a musical biopic ever.
When West coast-based rap group N.W.A released “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988, the young men single-handedly introduced gangsta rap to mainstream America, and forever left their mark in hip-hop history.