Tyrese Gibson

Tyrese Gibson was a singer before he was an actor, and the music came first by some distance. RCA signed him in 1998, "Nobody Else" reached the Billboard top 40 that August, and the self-titled debut album behind it went platinum, carried further by "Sweet Lady". Two more certified records followed, 2000 Watts in 2001 and I Wanna Go There in 2002, the latter producing "How You Gonna Act Like That", which peaked at number seven and remains his highest charting song. He tried hip hop under the name Black Ty on Alter Ego in 2006, and Open Invitation in 2011 drew a Grammy nomination.

Hollywood used him the way it often uses singers, as a presence rather than a technician, and he found the part that fit exactly. Roman Pearce arrived in 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003 and has turned up in six more entries since. Roman is the one who says out loud what the audience is thinking, the loudmouth who is scared of the plan, complains about the plan, and then executes the plan. In a franchise that grew steadily more solemn about family, he has been the release valve. The Transformers films gave him a straighter job as Epps, the soldier who reacts to giant robots so the audience knows how large they are.

Away from those two series the work is smaller: crime pictures like Baby Boy and Four Brothers early on, then a long run of low-budget action and thrillers made for streaming. The singing and the franchise seat have carried the rest of it.