Tyrese Gibson
Birthdate: December 30, 1978 (47 Years Old)
Birthplace: Watts, Los Angeles, California, USA
Tyrese Gibson (birth name: Tyrese Darnell Gibson) has been a double threat as an actor and R&B singer-songwriter since 1998, when he broke into the music scene with his debut album, Tyrese. The same year as his second album, 2000 Watts, dropped—2001—Gibson was cast in the lead of his first feature, the critically-acclaimed Baby Boy, from writer-director-producer John Singleton and co-starring Snoop Dogg, Ving Rhames, and Taraji P. Henson; the movie marked Singleton’s last written movie before his 2019 death, and won a Special Mention Leopard prize in its international premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
After his third album, I Wanna Go There, appeared in 2002, Gibson landed a co-starring role in the first of two movie franchises with his character of Roman in the Singleton-directed 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), the first sequel to the original 2001 The Fast and the Furious and co-starring Paul Walker, Eva Mendes, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, finishing with a stunning global gross of $236.4 million.
Tyrese Gibson joined the ensemble of the failed remake (of the 1965 film starring James Stewart and directed by Robert Aldrich), The Flight of the Phoenix (2004), starring Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, and Hugh Laurie, followed by Gibson’s third starring movie in five years with director Singleton—the successful blaxploitation-influenced Detroit drama, Four Brothers (2005), with Mark Wahlberg, André Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Gibson was recruited as a co-star in the Justin Lin-directed military drama, Annapolis (2006), with James Franco, Jordana Brewster, Donnie Wahlberg, and Chi McBride, followed by Gibson’s fourth album drop with the 2006 Alter Ego.
After starring in the critically-trounced action movie, Waist Deep (2006), directed and co-written by actor Vondie Curtis-Hall, Gibson scored a leading role in his second movie franchise with Transformers (2007), opposite Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel, which continued with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) (again, with LaBeouf and Duhamel), and then Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), all of them directed by Michael Bay, earning a combined total global box office of $2.7 billion.
Following the little-seen crime drama, The Take (2007), with Tyrese Gibson co-starring opposite John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, and Rosie Perez, Gibson joined writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson for Death Race (2008), which Anderson conceived as a prequel to Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975), and co-starring Jason Statham, Ian McShane, and Joan Allen.
Gibson co-starred with Paul Bettany and Lucas Black in co-writer/director Scott Stewart’s supernatural, apocalyptic-themed Legion (2010), receiving terrible reviews but solid box office for Sony Pictures. 2011 was an extremely busy for Gibson, including an album, Open Invitation, as well as movies from both the Transformers (Dark of the Moon) and Fast & Furious franchises—Fast Five, directed by Justin Lin as the series’ “transitional” entry into big-scale action starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and ranking as one of the top movies in the series.
Gibson continued his Roman character in the following Fast & Furious movies over the subsequent decade: Fast & Furious 6 (2013), directed by Lin; Furious 7 (2015), directed by James Wan; The Fate of the Furious (2017), directed by F. Gary Gray; F9 (2021), directed by Lin; and Fast X (2023), directed by Louis Leterrier; the combined box office of Gibson’s Fast & Furious movies up to 2023 was $5.12 billion.
Gibson departed from his usual brawnier roles as part of the ensemble of writer-director Kasi Lemmons’ musical drama, Black Nativity (2013), alongside Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Mary J. Blige, and Jennifer Hudson, and was released to poor box office by Fox Searchlight. After Gibson’s sixth album, Black Rose, appeared in 2015, Gibson appeared in one of his few smaller supporting roles in the cop comedy, Ride Along 2 (2016), starring Ice Cube (who also co-produced) and Kevin Hart.
Tyrese Gibson co-starred with Naomie Harris as New Orleans cops in the Deon Taylor-directed thriller, Black and Blue (2019), resulting in middling reviews and box office for Sony Pictures. After the minor thrillers, Rogue Hostage (2021), co-starring John Malkovich and Michael Jai White, as well as Dangerous (2021), with Scott Eastwood, Famke Janssen, and Mel Gibson, Gibson played support to star Jared Leto in Gibson’s first foray in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the critically-trounced and commercially disappointing Morbius (2022), with Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, and Jared Harris.
Gibson joined Terrence Howard and Jeremy Piven in writer-director Dallas Jackson’s thriller, The System (2022), released by The Avenue. In 2023, alongside Gibson’s busy acting schedule including the wide release of Fast X; writer-director Steven Luke’s World War II, Come Out Fighting, co-starring Kellan Lutz, White, and Dolph Lundgren; co-writer/director Cecil Chambers’ survival drama, Bunker, with Kate Bosworth and Devon Sawa; and the action thriller, The Collective, co-starring Lucas Till, Ruby Rose, and Don Johnson, Tyrese Gibson’s seventh album, Beautiful Pain, was released.
Another action thriller co-starring Gibson and premiering at festivals in 2023 was Bad Hombres, co-starring Thomas Jane, Luke Hemsworth, and Nick Cassavetes. Tyrese Gibson was cast by writer/producer/director Justin Price opposite Harvey Keitel, Peter Stormare, and Frank Grillo in the Mississippi-set thriller, Hard Matter (date to be announced), followed by Gibson scoring a starring role in the horror-crime drama, Squealer (date to be announced), from co-writer/director Andy Armstrong and featuring Theo Rossi, Wes Chatham and Kate Moennig.
Gibson was then cast in the indie murder mystery from co-writer/co-producer/director K. Asher Levin, Helen’s Dead (date to be announced), co-starring Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Emile Hirsch, and Dylan Gelula, followed by Gibson being cast in the horror-thriller from co-writers and co-producers Anthony and James Gaudioso, The Skeleton (date to be announced), with Bruce Dern, Shawnee Smith, and Taryn Manning.
Gibson joined co-stars Aubrey Joseph, Jane, and Vivica A. Fox in the biopic written and directed by Nicholas Manuel Pino, Bosco (date to be announced), and then Gibson played opposite co-stars Niko Foster, Chad Michael Collins, Harvey Keitel, Danny Trejo, and Mena Suvari in the Art Camacho-directed crime drama, The Wrecker (date to be announced). For the drama about the L.A. Uprising, Gibson joined the late Ray Liotta, Scott Eastwood, and Michael Beasley in co-writer/director Ariel Vromen’s April 29, 1992 (date to be announced).
Personal life
Tyrese Gibson was born and raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles by his mother, Priscilla Gibson, after his father, Tyrone Gibson, separated from Priscilla and left the family. Gibson has three older siblings, Tyrone, Jr., Salendra, and Shonta. Gibson has been married and divorced twice; first, to Norma Mitchell from 2007 to 2009, with the couple having one daughter named Shayla; second, to Samantha Lee from 2017 to 2020, with the couple having one daughter, Soraya. Each divorce proceeding was embroiled in custody battles that became excruciatingly public.
Known For
Fast X: Part 2
(2028)
Tyrese Gibson Movies
Actor
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Previous (23)
- 2024 |
Bloodline Killer
asDetective Cyphers
Bloodline Killer is a terrifying horror-thriller that follows Moira Cole who endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after the murder of her family at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.
- 2024 |
- 2023 |
- 2022 |
- 2021 |
F9: The Fast Saga
asRoman
Dom and the crew must take on an international terrorist who turns out to be Dom and Mia's estranged brother.
- 2019 |
Black and Blue
asMouse
A rookie New Orleans police officer is forced to balance her identity as a black woman after she witnesses two corrupt cops committing murder.
- 2017 |
The Fate of the Furious
asRoman
When a mysterious woman seduces Dominic Toretto into the world of terrorism and a betrayal of those closest to him, the crew face trials that will test them as never before.
- -- | as Roman
- -- | as Terry Savage
- -- | as Sheriff McCoy
- -- | Furious 7as Roman
- -- | Fast & Furious 6as Roman
- -- | as Roman
- -- | 2 Fast 2 Furiousas Roman Pearce
- -- | Transformersas USAF Tech Sergeant Epps
- -- | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallenas USAF Chief Master Sergeant Epps
- -- | Transformers: Dark of the Moonas Epps
- -- | Fast Fiveas Roman
- -- | as Detective Boswell
- -- | as Detective Boswell
- -- | as Bob
- -- | as Ray Jay
- -- | as Roman
Facts About Tyrese Gibson
Giving Back: Tyrese Gibson’s philanthropic work includes raising $300,000 to build an inner-city Boys and Girls Youth center, and founding the non-profit organization, 2000 Watts, aiding children in inner-city America.
Being Honest: Gibson has confessed in interviews that he would rather win a Grammy than an Oscar.
Debut: Tyrese Gibson’s show business debut was as a teenager singing on a bus in a Coca-Cola commercial—which he earned by winning a talent contest that he entered at 14 years old at the urging of his high school music teacher.
Model Man: As a model, Gibson has worked for brands such as Guess? and Tommy Hilfiger.
Legal Issues: In April 2023, Tyrese Gibson was held in contempt by a court, ordering him to pay over $237,000 in back child support for his daughter, Soraya, and nearly $400,000 in legal fees for his wife, Samantha Gibson; the couple had been in divorce proceedings. Previously, in the 2017 period, Gibson went through complex custody battles with his former wife Norma and their daughter Shayla, going public with several social media tirades.
