Heavy D
Heavy D is an actor, born 1967.
Dwight Arrington Myers led Heavy D and the Boyz, a group whose records were produced by Teddy Riley, Marley Marl, DJ Premier, his cousin Pete Rock and the group's own Eddie F, and which held a sizeable American audience through most of the nineties. Five albums with the Boyz, four solo records, and a producer's ear that brought through Soul for Real and Monifah. He died in 2011.
The acting began the way it usually does for rappers, with him playing himself: Who's the Man?, B.A.P.S, Yo! MTV Raps, an uncredited appearance in the Michael Jackson Dangerous short-film collection. What is unusual is how quickly he stopped doing that. By 1995 he was Bo-Kane in New Jersey Drive, and in 1999 he took two parts with no connection to his music at all, Peaches in The Cider House Rules and Jake in Life.
He was a genuinely relaxed screen presence, warm and unhurried, and he never acted the size of the crowd he could draw. The parts kept coming: Greer in Big Trouble, Mr. Lick on Boston Public, Bernard on The Tracy Morgan Show, Omar in Step Up. That last one, in 2006, is a supporting role in a big teen dance film, and he plays it entirely straight.
Movies (11)
TV (4)
Where to start with Heavy D
The Cider House Rules is the one to watch first. It is the least likely credit on the list, a prestige period drama, and Heavy D settles into the ensemble without a trace of celebrity casting.
Life from the same year is the comic version of the same trick, in a cast full of people working much harder for attention. New Jersey Drive is the toughest film here and the earliest real performance. Step Up and Big Trouble are the mainstream ones. If it is the music era you want, Who's the Man? and Yo! MTV Raps are the time capsules, and Boston Public shows what he did with a television register.