Mos Def Filmography

Born:: December 11, 1973
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: Mos Def may seem, to the casual observer, like a rare example of a musician successfully transitioning into acting, but in truth, his acclaimed music career did not take off until long after he'd cemented himself as a working actor. Nonetheless, the man has built both his music and film careers on...Read More

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Be Kind Rewind

Actors: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz

Synopsis: When a bumbling movie lover becomes magnetized while attempting to sabotage a local power plant and accidentally erases all of the videotapes in the small video store where his best friend works, the pair attempt to keep the store's loyal customer base by remaking as many of the top-renting movies Read More

2/22/08
Keep Coming Back

Actors: Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Mos Def, William H. Macy

Synopsis: A sheltered teenager with a weak heart discovers that there is more to life than he ever imagined when he becomes smitten with a world-weary, alcoholic ex-stripper. Salma Hayek stars as the exotic dancer who becomes charmed by the infatuated teen's naïveté, with Mos Def, Steve Buscemi, and William Read More

1/1/08
Bury Me Standing

Actors: Mos Def, Alfre Woodard

Synopsis: Writer/director Caran Hartsfield's black comedy Bury Me Standing (2008) observes four family members in the wake of a 26-year-old relative's death from homicide. Mos Def and Alfre Woodard co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide Read More

2008
In Prison My Whole Life

Actors: William Francome, Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Mos Def, Smoof

Synopsis: Since his incarceration in 1982 for allegedly shooting a Philadelphia policeman to death, Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has awaited execution on Death Row, vociferously protesting his innocence; he now qualifies as one of the most famous Death Row inmates in the world. Currently an author of five Read More

2008
Cadillac Records

Actors: Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Cedric the Entertainer, Beyoncé Knowles, Columbus Short

Synopsis: The story of the blues in 1950s Chicago is told in Sony BMG Film's Cadillac Records, a musical drama written and directed by TV veteran Darnell Martin. The film stars Adrien Brody as Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, with Jeffrey Wright portraying R&B legend Muddy Waters, Cedric the Entertainer Read More

1/1/08
Bobby Zero

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Mos Def

Synopsis: When a struggling social satirist (Mos Def) turns to advertising work in order to pay the bills, his artistic sacrifice returns to haunt him in this adaptation of a comic play by Maurice Chauvet. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

1/1/08
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Actors: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan

Synopsis: When America's number one NASCAR speed-demon is issued a direct challenge from a gay, French Formula One racer with a hunger for the top spot and a mean talent for tight-cornering, the race is on to become the number one man in all of NASCAR in a full throttle comedy starring Will Ferrell and Read More

8/4/06
Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Actors: Dave Chappelle, Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, The Fugees

Synopsis: In September 2004, comedian Dave Chappelle took a break from his immensely successful Comedy Central show to stage a free, unpublicized, all-star hip-hop concert in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Inviting fans over the Internet, on the street, and even in his family's hometown of Read More

3/3/06
16 Blocks

Actors: Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Jenna Stern, Casey Sander

Synopsis: A hard-drinking, hard-living cop assigned the task of transporting a small-time criminal to the nearby courthouse finds that a simple, 16-block drive can be the longest ride of his life in director Richard Donner's urban action thriller. Hung-over, has-been cop Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) has seen Read More

3/3/06
Coachella

Actors: Nu Mark

Synopsis: Filmmaker Drew Thomas brings California's popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the screen with a different kind of musical documentary that not only showcases performances by some of the hottest acts to take the stage, but offers interviews with such musical icons as Beck, Joshua Homme Read More

1/20/06
Journey to the End of the Night

Actors: Scott Glenn, Brendan Fraser, Mos Def, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Alice Braga

Synopsis: Eric Eason's stylish sophomore film, the crime thriller Journey to the End of Night, features Scott Glenn and Brendan Fraser as a father and son who unknowingly have each bet their individual futures on a stolen suitcase. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Glenn's wife, and her motivations are as Read More

2006
Prince Among Slaves

Actors: Mos Def

2006
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Actors: Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Warwick Davis

Synopsis: Douglas Adams' oft-adapted tale of an normal guy making his way through the universe (it's already been presented as a novel, a radio serial, a television series, and a comic book) finally makes its way to the big screen in this endearingly goofy sci-fi comedy. Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is a Read More

4/29/05
Lackawanna Blues

Actors: S. Epatha Merkerson, Julie Benz, Robert A. Bradley, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Kathleen Chalfant

Synopsis: A young boy grows up among a makeshift family of oddballs and dreamers in this adaptation of Ruben Santiago-Hudson's acclaimed one-man show. Ruben Junior (Marcus Carl Franklin) is a young boy who was born in the late '40s into a family that started crumbling not long after he was born. Ruben Read More

2005
Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

2005
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

2005
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 05

2005
The Woodsman

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Eve, Mos Def, David Alan Grier, Benjamin Bratt

Synopsis: Writer/director Nicole Kassell makes her feature film debut with the drama The Woodsman. Co-written by Steven Fechter, the original script won first place at the Slamdance Screenplay Competition in 2001. Kevin Bacon plays Walter, a child molester who gets out of prison after serving a 12-year Read More

12/24/04
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme

Synopsis: The pioneers and current purveyors of the vibrant art of freestyle hip-hop mingle in this hour-long documentary about the origins and future of the style. Shot in New York City, L.A., and San Francisco, Freestyle alternates between informed commentary -- by rap stalwarts such as The Last Poets, Mos Def Read More

7/16/04
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 04

Actors: Russell Simmons

Synopsis: Season four of the improvisational, uninhibited HBO series Def Poetry Jam offers a full ten half hours -- three more than any previous season. Accordingly, this batch of episodes features the series' biggest and most stellar talent lineup, performing their own angry, outrageous, profane Read More

2004
The Sky is Green

Actors: Vince Vaughn, Steve Buscemi, Saffron Burrows, Michael Rapaport

2004
Devil's Music [Animated Series]

Actors: Mos Def

2004
Juvies

Actors: Michael Duc Ta, Ishimine Williams, Santiago Diaz

2004
Something the Lord Made

Actors: Alan Rickman, Mos Def, Kyra Sedgwick, Gabrielle Union, Mary Stuart Masterson, Charles S. Dutton

Synopsis: The true story of two medical pioneers -- one celebrated, one overlooked -- is brought to life in this made-for-cable drama. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) is chief surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, where he is pioneering new techniques in heart surgery. Blalock makes the acquaintance of Vivien Read More

2004
Civil Brand

Actors: LisaRaye, Mos Def, N'Bushe Wright, Monica Calhoun, Da Brat

Synopsis: Television director Neema Barnette directs the forceful drama Civil Brand, based on a story by Preston A. Whitmore II. Shot with a micro-budget of 500,000 dollars, the film stars confrontational rap and hip-hop artists Mos Def, MC Lyte, and Da Brat. The story concerns a women's prison that Read More

8/29/03
The Italian Job

Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham

Synopsis: A team of high-class thieves avenge their mentor's death -- with the help of his own daughter -- in this big-budget remake of the 1969 British caper classic. The Italian Job stars Mark Wahlberg as Charlie, the mastermind of a daring Venice heist overseen by John (Donald Sutherland), a lifelong Read More

5/30/03
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 03

Actors: Russell Simmons

Synopsis: The third season of the improvisational performance art series Def Poetry Jam offers the property's biggest lineup of talent yet. In the course of its seven half-hour episodes, the series features such returnees from previous seasons as Black Ice, Danny Hoch, Steve Colman, Jamie Kennedy, Poetri Read More

2003
Brown Sugar

Actors: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Def, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe

Synopsis: A woman wonders if it's just friendship or real love she feels when a close male friend announces he's tying the knot in this romantic comedy. Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) became best friends when they were ten years old -- the same time that both first became aware of the first Read More

10/11/02
Showtime

Actors: Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo, Pedro Damien, Mos Def

Synopsis: Robert DeNiro continues to lampoon his tough-guy persona with this spoof of buddy cop movies that teams him with comic co-star Eddie Murphy. DeNiro is L.A.P.D. detective Mitch Preston, a gruff, no-nonsense 28-year veteran whose bust of a drug gang is botched one night by Trey Sellars (Murphy), a Read More

3/15/02
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 02

Actors: Russell Simmons

Synopsis: Seven new half-hour sessions of hilarious, haunting, profane, and profound improvisational poetry are dished up in the second season of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Produced by Russell Simmons of Def Comedy Jam and hosted by rapper Mos Def, the series, taped at The Supper Club in New York, launches Read More

2002
Monster's Ball

Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Halle Berry, Peter Boyle, Sean Combs

Synopsis: Director Marc Forster, winner of Best Feature at Slamdance for his debut film Loungers (1996) and the "Someone to Watch" Independent Spirit Award for his indie drama Everything Put Together (2000), follows up those acclaimed projects with this intense, racially charged romance. Billy Bob Thornton Read More

12/26/01
Carmen: A Hip Hopera

Actors: Beyoncé Knowles, Mekhi Phifer, Mos Def

Synopsis: Previously, and brilliantly, adapted as an opera by Georges Bizet, the Prosper Merimee novel Carmen served as the inspiration for this updated made-for-cable movie. Set in contemporary Los Angeles, the film stars Beynoce Knowles of Destiny's Child as the seductive Carmen, no longer an employee in Read More

2001
Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 01

Actors: Mos Def, Russell Simmons

Synopsis: The inaugural season of Russell Simmons' raw and uninhibited Def Poetry Jam consisted of four half-hour telecasts, originally presented live at The Supper Club in New York. With rapper Mos Def serving as host, the series offers an impressive array of improvisational ethnic poetry, running a gamut Read More

2001
Bamboozled

Actors: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport

Synopsis: Writer and director Spike Lee casts his satiric gaze on racism in American television and how America's racist past still impacts the present in this biting comedy. Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is an astute, Harvard-educated African-American writer working for an independent television network Read More

10/6/00
Island of the Dead

Actors: Talisa Soto, Bruce Ramsay, Malcolm McDowell, Steffen Wink

Synopsis: A man who fails to respect the dead pays a high price for his arrogance in this horrifying thriller. For decades, the city of New York has buried the bodies of the unknown and the destitute on Hart Island, a tiny slip of land near the Big Apple's harbor, with inmates from a nearby prison on hand Read More

2000
NYPD Blue: Stressed for Success

Synopsis: Despite the best efforts of Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder), street informant J.B. Murphy is unable to kick his drug habit; when J.B. is found dead at the scene of a fire, Danny goes off the deep end, thoroughly alienating his girlfriend, Mary (Sheeri Rappaport). Elsewhere, Jill (Andrea Thompson) Read More

2000
Where's Marlowe?

Actors: Miguel Ferrer, Mos Def, John Livingston, Elizabeth Schofield, Barbara Howard

Synopsis: Daniel Pyne directed and co-scripted (with John Mankiewicz) this satirical look at private eyes, originally planned as a TV series but instead later expanded into a feature. Before a switch to color, the film begins with a black and white prologue in which NYU film-school graduates Wilton Crawley (Mos Def Read More

1998
NYPD Blue: Czech Bouncer

Synopsis: The victims of a robbery-homicide turn out to be two old friends of Detective Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder). While helping Sorenson investigate this incident, Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) also lobbies to reopen the Suarez murder case -- which hits a snag when Suarez is killed in prison. Read More

1998
NYPD Blue: All's Well That Ends Well

Synopsis: Back on active duty, Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) reteams with Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) to investigate a bar shooting. The suspect, an off-duty corrections officer, turns out to be terminally ill, and may not have been responsible for his actions. In another development, the squad converges upon Read More

1997

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