Actress Alexandra Shipp is set to star in VH1’s follow-up to the 12-year-old hit film Drumline starring Nick Cannon.
The original movie, Drumline: A New Beat is set to premiere on Monday, October 27th at 9PM ET/PT. In a full circle moment, Nick Cannon will serve as an executive producer and reprise his role as Devon Miles in a cameo appearance for the television movie.

Shipp’s role as Danielle “Dani” Raymond puts her in the position to learn about ego, teamwork and courage as she sets out to be the first female section leader of the drumline at fictional Atlanta A&T University. She says this role is exciting because she gets to step up and show that women can do anything! “We can bare the babies, and then get right back to business,” Shipp says.

She’s also playing as Aaliyah in the Lifetime biopic “Aaliyah: Princess of R&B.” She said she auditioned at the same time she went out for the role in Drumline and accepted both.
Shipp’s least favorite part of the role was working out to get her body tight for the crop tops she’d be sporting, but loved the hair and makeup because the team made her look just like Aaliyah. Shipp is also an accomplished singer/songwriter, and since the network couldn’t get the rights to Aaliyah’s music, Shipp stepped in and performed the original songs used in the film, which airs November 15th.

I got to catch up with Alexandra Shipp during appearances at Howard University’s homecoming game where she shared with me her experiences filming these roles. Check it out here.

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