British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir (previously played President Barack Obama on Showtime’s The Comey Rule and Malcolm X in One Night in Miami) has been tapped by Paramount to play the iconic reggae legend Bob Marley with Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) directing, as reported by Deadline.
Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley and Cedella Marley will also produce on behalf of Tuff Gong. Robert Teitel will also produce. Script is by Zach Baylin, Frank E. Flowers and Terence Winter.
Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36, but in that short lifetime he changed the landscape of music, introducing generations to reggae with such songs as “Get Up, Stand Up,” “One Love,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Buffalo Soldier,” “Jammin’” and “Redemption Song.”
As stated in Deadline — sources say Paramount execs and Green saw endless tests and met with dozens of actors vying for the role, but in recent weeks Ben-Adir began putting himself in pole position before ultimately winning the role.
Kingsley Ben-Adir is a British actor. He has performed in several plays in London theatres. He played pathologist Marcus Summer in ITV’s detective drama Vera and private detective Karim Washington on the second season of the Netflix series The OA. From 2017 to 2019, he appeared in series four and five of the BBC One television series Peaky Blinders. In 2020, he starred as Malcolm X in the Amazon Studios film One Night in Miami.
He recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he is set to play the villain in Marvel’s Secret Invasion, starring Samuel L. Jackson.
He is repped by CAA, Range Media Partners and B-Side Management.
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