‘Queen’s Gambit’ Alum Moses Ingram To Play Robyn Crawford In Whitney Houston Biopic ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ For Sony And TriStar

Justin Kroll
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Moses Ingram is set play Whitney Houston’s longtime assistant Robyn Crawford opposite BAFTA-winning actress Naomi Ackie in Sony Pictures and TriStar Pictures’ musical biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, based on the epic life and music of iconic singer. Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten is writing the script and Stella Meghie is directing.

Crawford later become Houston’s creative director while also remaining one of her closest friends.

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Besides McCarten’s Muse of Fire Productions, the film is being produced by Pat Houston on behalf of the Houston Estate; Grammy-winning music producer Clive Davis; Larry Mestel on behalf of Primary Wave Music; and Denis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri, who are also financing via Compelling Pictures.

Primary Wave is a partner of the Houston estate. Nicole Brown, Shary Shirazi and Brittany Morrissey will oversee the project for TriStar. The film will be released at Thanksgiving 2022.

Houston is the most awarded female music artist of all time and one of the bestselling recording artists of all time, selling more than 200 million records worldwide. She won six Grammys, 16 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards and two Emmys among many others.

Houston made her acting debut with the romantic thriller film The Bodyguard, recording xix songs for the film’s soundtrack, including “I Will Always Love You”; the song won the Grammy for Record of the Year and became the bestselling physical single by a woman in music history. The soundtrack album also won the Grammy for Album of the Year and remains the bestselling soundtrack album in history. In 2020, Whitney was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and became the first Black artist to have three RIAA Diamond Awards.

Ingram recently made her TV debut in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. The series received Golden Globe, Critics Choice and AFI awards and has been watched by 62 million households. She is currently in production on the Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi on which she stars alongside Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, and will next be seen in the role of Lady Macduff opposite Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of Macbeth for A24.

She he recently wrapped production on both The Same Storm directed by Peter Hedges and Ambulance directed by Michael Bay. Ingram is repped by Innovative Artists, Authentic Talent & Literary Management and Fox Rothschild.

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