Imani Hakim From Everybody Hates Chris Will Play Gabby Douglas – Both are 4’11”
Lifetime is making a movie about the life of gymnast Gabby Douglas, which will air on television in 2014. The network is making a name for itself as a network for original Black films. Last year it produced the Black Steel Magnolias remake, and this year Betty & Corretta kicked off a Black history month celebration on the network. Imani Hakim, who played Tonya Rock on the UPN/CW show Everybody Hates Chris, has been chosen to portray Gabby. Hakim, now age 20, hasn’t appeared in many roles since Everybody Hates Chris was cancelled. In fact it was hard to find a recent photo – the one above was taken from her Instagram account. However, it seems like this role may be the perfect match for her. The actresses height on IMDB is listed 4’11”, the same height as Olympian Gabby Douglas.
Here is the official summary of the Gabby Douglas Biopic from HuffPost:
A prodigy from a very young age, Gabby Douglas originally made her mark on the world of competitive gymnastics at age eight. She won numerous state championship titles in her age group throughout her early competitive career. While her star was fast rising In The Arena, Gabby and her family faced economic challenges at home and she made the difficult decision to leave her mother Natalie (King), three siblings and grandmother (Merkerson) in Virginia Beach and move to Des Moines, Iowa, to train with renowned coach Liang Chow (Brian Tee, The Wolvernine) to pursue her dream of Olympic glory. Buoyed by her early success, dedication and unyielding love from her family, Gabby made it onto the 2012 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team, with whom she faced intense competition in the London Games. Her sacrifice and perseverance were triumphantly rewarded with Team Competition and Individual All-round gold medals, placing Gabby and her teammates – known as “The Fierce Five” — among the world’s all-time greats in gymnastics.
Olympian careers, particularly those of gymnasts are short. There’s a limited time window these athletes have for profiting from the years of hard work they’ve put into their careers from a young age. Typically autobiographies and endorsements are the way these athletes go, but a film sounds much more interesting. Here’s to hoping the film makes Gabby Douglas some cash.
