Openly-gay 30-year-old Baltimore, Maryland actress Felicia “Snoop” Pearson is a true example of what can happen when you work hard to make your life better – regardless of life circumstances thrust upon you at birth. Literally. Pearson was born a mere three pounds and was not expected to live. Both of her parents were incarcerated drug addicts. She would live with foster parents in East Baltimore and follow in her parents footsteps by skipping school to become a drug dealer herself.
At age 14, Pearson was convicted of second-degree murder. She was immediately sentenced to two eight year terms, to be served consecutively. She would serve five years of the sentence in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup, Maryland. While incarcerated, Pearson would successfully complete the GED program to obtain her high school diploma. Felicia fought the system every step of the way. It was the murder of her father figure, drug dealer Arnold Loney while she was in Jessup that changed things. She called him Uncle, he was the man who nicknamed Pearson “Snoop” after the Peanuts character. His death would change Pearson’s life forever.
HBO’s The Wire Actor Michael K. Williams spotted Pearson at a club one evening and asked her to audition for the show. He thought that she would be the perfect addition because of her over-sized swagger and attitude. Of the encounter, Williams said, “I got intoxicated with her. I saw her strength and her vulnerability. You look in her eyes and you see things. . . . I said, ‘This woman deserves a shot at something more than what the Baltimore streets have to offer.’ I felt compelled to give her an option, just in case she wanted to try something else.” That night would become the beginning of Pearson’s acting career. Stephen King wrote in Entertainment Weekly, that the TV Snoop is “perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series.”
Felicia co-wrote the best selling book GRACE AFTER MIDNIGHT, a memoir, and looks forward to completing her second book, which is the first in a series about a gay woman holding her own in a mans world.
* Photo courtesy Felicia “Snoop” Pearson. Used with permission.