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 3 pounds (1.4 kg), and was not expected to live. She was so small that she was fed with an eyedropper until she could be fed normally. She grew up in an East Baltimore foster home and, according to her memoir, met her biological parents very few times. She decided to go by her foster family's surname.

Pearson was a tomboy from a young age and began dealing drugs as a teenager. At the age of 14, she was convicted of second-degree murder after shooting 15-year-old Okia Toomer, whom she later claimed was trying to attack her with a lead baseball bat. She described the incident as "the worst day of [her] life". She was tried as an adult and sentenced to two eight-year terms, to be served consecutively, at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup, Maryland. She was released in 2000 after serving five and a half years.

Pearson credited drug dealer Arnold Lonly, to whom she referred as her uncle, with helping her turn her life around; he sent her money and visited her regularly in prison, discouraged her from getting more involved in crime, and urged her to study and get her GED. He nicknamed her "Snoop" because she reminded him of the cartoon dog Snoopy. He was shot and killed while she was in prison, prompting her to follow his advice and earn her GED. Upon her release, she found work at a car wash and fabricating car bumpers on an assembly line, but was fired from both when employers learned she had a criminal record.