Shad Moss
Shad Moss is an actor, born 1987.
Snoop Dogg found him in 1993, when he was six years old. Five years after that he signed with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def, an imprint of Columbia, and released his debut album Beware of Dog at thirteen under the name Lil' Bow Wow. It reached number 8 on the Billboard 200 and the follow-up, Doggy Bag, reached number 11. Almost nobody gets a career that starts that young and survives the voice change.
Acting was the hedge, and it worked better than hedges usually do. After a cameo in All About the Benjamins (2002) he carried Like Mike (2002) as an orphan who finds a pair of sneakers, and the film holds up because he plays wanting something sincerely rather than cutely, which is rare in a child lead. Johnson Family Vacation (2004) and Roll Bounce (2005) followed, the second of them his best straight acting: a 1970s roller-rink picture that gets the ache and the swagger in the right proportions.
He has been Twinkie in the Fast saga twice, in Tokyo Drift (2006) and again in F9 (2021), fifteen years apart, which is its own kind of achievement. In between came Lottery Ticket (2010), Madea's Big Happy Family (2011), Scary Movie 5 (2013), and a run as Brody Nelson on CSI: Cyber. The music was the bigger story at the time; the acting is the part with the longer tail.
Movies (12)
TV (7)
Where to start with Shad Moss
Like Mike is the honest starting point, both because it is the one he carries and because it is a better film than a body-swap sneaker premise deserves. Then Roll Bounce, the performance to argue for, where the period detail never gets in the way of the feeling.
The franchise work is a different pleasure. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the odd cousin of the Fast films and better than its reputation, and F9 brings him back long after anyone expected it. Lottery Ticket is the amiable neighbourhood comedy, Madea's Big Happy Family is for Tyler Perry regulars only, and CSI: Cyber is where to find him doing steady weekly television. Scary Movie 5 you can skip.