Felicia Pearson

Felicia Pearson (born May 18, 1980) is an American actress, rapper, and author. She is best known for playing Snoop, a fictionalized version of herself, on The Wire.

Early life Felicia Pearson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 18, 1980, the daughter of incarcerated drug addicts; her mother was a crack addict and her father was an armed robber. She was premature at birth, weighing just , and was not expected to live. She was so small that she was fed with an eyedropper until she could be fed normally. She described the incident as "the worst day of [her] life". She was released in 2000 after serving five and a half years.

Career Pearson met The Wire star Michael K. Williams in a Baltimore club. At the time, she had returned to dealing drugs as she could not hold down a job due to her criminal record. She acted in the Spike Lee films Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014) and Chi-Raq (2015), and appeared in an episode of the CBS series Blue Bloods (2016).

Outside of acting, Pearson wrote the memoir Grace After Midnight (2007). She was featured on the 2009 song "It's a Stick Up" with Tony Yayo and Mazaradi Fox, and its music video showed clips from The Wire. She appeared on the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York for its seventh and eighth seasons (2016–2018).

Personal life Pearson is a lesbian. As of 2008, she lives outside Baltimore with her girlfriend and their dog.

Pearson and 60 others were arrested and charged with drug offenses on March 10, 2011, following a raid at her Baltimore home as part of a five-month DEA operation. At the first hearing, Judge John Addison Howard denied her bail and told her, "Well, you can change your appearance. I've seen the episodes of The Wire in which you appear. You look very different than you do here today, and I'm not talking about the jumpsuit, I'm talking about your general appearance." After one month in jail, Pearson was offered bail of $50,000 on April 8. In August, she pleaded guilty to the charges the day before her trial was to begin. She was sentenced to a suspended seven-year prison term, with credit for time served, and given three years of supervised probation.

Filmography