British Star Wars actress Naomi Ackie to play Whitney Houston in new biopic

British actress Naomi Ackie will play iconic singer Whitney Houston in a new film, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, scheduled for release in late 2022.

The musical biopic will be directed by Stella Meghie, who was behind the Issa Rae romance The Photograph. And it is written by Anthony McCarten, who scripted the rumbustious Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Ackie, 28, won the role after a lengthy worldwide search.

"We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston," Meghie told The Hollywood Reporter. "Naomi Ackie impressed us at every stage of the process. I was moved by her ability to capture the stage presence of a global icon while bringing humanity to her interior life."

One of the film's producers, Clive Davis, who worked closely with Houston, said: "Naomi Ackie’s screen test was so powerful, it sent shivers up my spine. [She] is the real deal and I can’t imagine a better choice for this role."

Ackie won Best Supporting Actress at the Bafta TV Awards earlier this year for her performance in the Channel 4 series The End of the F---ing World. She has also appeared in Doctor Who, gang drama Yardie, and played Jannah, a warrior queen, in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody will follow the rise and tumultuous times of Houston, who died in 2012, aged 48.

She is the most rewarded female artist of all time, with six Grammys to her name and more than 200 million records sold worldwide. Her hits include Saving All My Love for You, How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody. She made her acting debut in the 1992 action blockbuster The Bodyguard, recording six songs for the film’s soundtrack, including I Will Always Love You.

Her talent was nurtured by her mother as a child in Gospel choirs, and she gained her first record deal aged 15. She achieved global fame and success with her debut album, 1985's Whitney Houston. Her second album, Whitney, released in 1987, also went platinum.

She married R&B singer Bobby Brown in 1992, but the couple's passionate but troubled marriage became tabloid fodder. Substance abuse and rumours of domestic violence swirled around them.

In the 2000s, though, she and Brown made efforts to repair their marriage; and, at the time of her death from accidental drowning, she reported to be launching a comeback.

Ackie's next role is in the heist musical The Score with Will Poulter and Johnny Flynn.