Meet 'Dope' Breakout Shameik Moore, Who Went From YouTube Tween to Rising Star

The Sundance Film Festival favorite Dope hits theaters on Friday, and, if all goes according to plan, Americans will soon be living in “Meak’s World.”

Directed by Rick Famuyiwa (Brown Sugar, The Wood), Dope features 20-year-old newcomer Shameik Moore as Malcolm, a ‘90s hip hop-obsessed geek who hopes to escape from his rough Los Angeles neighborhood and attend Harvard. It’s an unlikely jump for Malcolm, given the obstacles on the long uphill road from his humble childhood home, and in that way, Moore can certainly relate: A native of Atlanta with no real Hollywood connections, he decided to become a professional dancer once he saw the 2004 hit You Got Served, and began plotting a singing career after seeing Chris Brown in concert when he was 13 years old.

“All these interviews I’m doing — this is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about doing when I was younger,” Moore told Yahoo Movies from a hotel in L.A., where he was preparing to go on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I was praying for people to want to write about me. I wanted people to hear my music, I wanted to perform, I wanted to be on billboards.”

Moore belongs to the first social media generation, made up of kids who lied about their ages to join Facebook in the late aughts, when no one younger than a high school freshman could register. Young stars have been taught to establish their “personal brand” from day one, and once Moore began training at the We Entertain arts complex in Atlanta, he came up with “Meak’s World,” which was a combination of a mantra, mission statement, and trademark to tie together his various creative endeavors.

“Meak’s World is the world I created when I was 12, when I got into the industry,” he said. “I said, ‘I have to do it myself. It’s not going to be given to me. It has to be Meak’s World.’”

He wasn’t an overnight success, but he worked hard at building a small fan base mostly via YouTube. His channel still hosts videos that stretch back six years, with everything from episodes of a webcam show called Meak’s World to breakdance performances to direct appeals to Hollywood directors, like the one below:

From that point in early middle school, Meak’s World was built slowly, with a foundation made of mostly music video appearances and small roles in films like Joyful Noise and The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Then Famuyiwa, who’d been struggling to cast the Malcolm role, noticed Moore while watching audition tapes several years ago, and flew him to L.A. for an in-person tryout. It didn’t go very well, at least in their initial meeting.

“I got really nervous,” Moore remembers. “For like 98 percent of my life, I’m not nervous. But as soon as I’m nervous, I start shaking or something, and I lose my cool.” Still, Moore says he didn’t realize how badly he wilted in the spotlight until his agents called to tell him that Famuyiwa was willing to give him one more chance.

Obviously, Moore nailed it the second time around, putting the rare case of nerves behind him and grabbing the part of the ambitious, conscientious, and very well-dressed Malcolm.

Watch the trailer for ‘Dope’:

Moore plays Malcolm as a vulnerable, but ultimately resourceful kid destined for greater things. The character — who quotes N.W.A. lyrics and plays in a punk band — uses his blend of street smarts and geeky know-how to unload a stash of drugs, aided by his two best friends, played by Transparent’s Kiersey Clemons and The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori. There’s also a girl, of course: A local (Zoë Kravitz) whom Moore tutors and eventually tries to win over.

It’s a nuanced role in a film that puts a fresh spin on the classic “gotta get out of here” coming-of-age film — a 21st century Risky Business or Saturday Night Fever set in South Central. The teens deal with Bitcoin and Instagram, ogle old vinyl records and tap into the Dark Web, making Dope an earnest adventure inside a maze of zeitgeist. It’s a film that takes a fresh look at a world largely written off by Hollywood, even though it’s just miles down the road.

Dope will no doubt be Moore’s breakout turn, and he’s long prepared for this wave of publicity. In the grand tradition of hip-hop culture, Moore has worked on establishing a sort of brand name that combines his ambition and self-regard; as he often mentions on Twitter, he’d love to be known as #KingSAM. It’s a hashtag monicker that he hopes becomes the catch-all identity for all of his artistic pursuits — each letter in his initials carries its own meaning; the “M” for Moore also suggests he always leaves the audience “wanting more.”

Why brand himself so early? It’s to take control of the narrative, Moore says, before someone else can begin to write it. It makes sense from a business standpoint, as it’s unlikely that the news media would be quite as invested in his career’s success as Moore is himself. He talks about being grateful and staying humble quite often, so he doesn’t lack self-awareness. He just also knows that in an increasingly crowded media sphere with countless young social media stars and performers obsessing over their brands and follower count, he has to be overly proactive.

Dope, Moore hopes, will also help launch his music career. To coincide with the film’s release, Moore, who worked with producer Pharrell and co-star A$AP Rocky during the film’s production, is dropping some new music of his own. “It’s not a mixtape or EP; I call it a soundtrack,” he says, explaining that the tracks will be about his upbringing and life in Georgia. It’s called 30058 — his childhood zip code — and will be available on his website. And he’s got a full album that he plans to release next spring, soon after the release of The Get Down, the Netflix series on which he’s currently working.

While Dope’s Malcolm was obsessed with ‘90s hip hop, the Netflix show, which is being made by Baz Luhrmann, focuses on the birth of hip hop in the ‘70s South Bronx. Moore gets to rap, sing and b-boy dance, and this time, he plays the “bad boy,” he says, teasing a very different look from his breakout role.

Moore seems to have a solid game-plan, thanks in part to all the years he spent preparing to capitalize on the opportunities he hustled so hard to secure. He certainly doesn’t lack for confidence, but also knows his journey to turning Hollywood into Meak’s World has really only gotten started.

“I can’t assume that people see me the way I see myself,” Moore offered. “I have to show them. But I can’t do it in a way where it’s too much, where it’s rude. I feel like when you’re a king, you lead. And I just see myself as a king, or as something more than just a regular human being.”

Watch Forest Whitaker talk about ‘Dope’: