Omar Epps’ 10 Best Movies and TV Shows

The best Omar Eps Movies and TV shows include long-running medical, crime and fantasy genres, and he also has some great work on the big screen. Epps was born in Brooklyn and attended a high school that specialized in performing arts before he started working in music and acting. He then got a huge opportunity when he made his film debut in juice, Which got a lot of attention since it was also the film acting debut of rap legend Tupac Shakur. This was just the beginning.

Epps had a lot of success on the big screen, but he became a star thanks to his work on television. Another small recurring role in the medical drama HeHe exploded in popularity when he was cast as Dr. Eric Forman in the medical drama series House. The actor earned several award nominations for this role and then Used it to catapult himself into a series of regular TV show roles Almost every year since he finished his term House. While he didn’t stop acting in movies, Epps proved his worth on the small screen.

10

Scream 2 (1997)

Omar Epps plays Phil Stevens

The first scream Movie became famous for its opening when Drew Barrymore was killed before the story really started. It pulls off an old Alfred Hitchcock trick, similar to when he killed Janet Leigh at the midpoint of Psycho. the second scream Movie has a similar trick but with a much smaller star than Barrymore. This time, it was Jada Pinkett, fresh off her breakout on A different world And Menace II Society. However, some people may not remember her boyfriend in the movie, played by Omar Epps.

The scene was heavily parodied, with Pinkett as a college student at the movies with her boyfriend, watching stabA movie based on the events of the first film. She and Epps’ Phil Stevens were killed in front of everyone who thought it was a promotional stunt. It was a small role for Epps, as he died early in the movie, but just like the original film, it was one of the more memorable moments in Shout 2 and helped Epps gain an even bigger audience for his talents.

9

This Is Us (2019-2020)

Omar Epps plays Darnell Hodges

This is us Most revolved around the story’s “triplets,” played by Justin Hartley, Chrissy Metz, and Sterling K. Brown. Hartley and Metz were twins born to Jack and Rebecca Pearson, while Brown was born on the same day and adopted by the couple. The series flips between the future, after Jack dies, and their childhood, where Jack and Rebecca raise them to become the people they will grow into. Omar Epps joined the series in the fourth season as Darnell Hodges.

Malik Hodges is a teenage father living with his parents. He starts with Deja, Randall’s (Brown) adopted daughter. Darnell Hodges is Malik’s (Asante Black) father. His role is small, and he is only in three episodes, but this remains one of the most popular and successful shows of Epps’ career, and he delivers a solid role as a father trying to do what is best for his son. He gives one of the best speeches of that season when he introduces himself to who a son is, not what he is perceived to be.

8

Shooter (2016-2018)

Omar Epps plays Captain Isaac Johnson

In 2016, USA Network picked up the Mark Wahlberg movie Shooter And repurposed it as a TV series. It also chose to add some bigger names to the cast in the main roles. Ryan Phillippe (I know what you did last summer) took the lead role as Bob Lee Swagger and Omar Epps joined the cast as Secret Service agent Isaac Johnson, Swagger’s former commanding officer in the Marines and the man who called him back into action To help protect a visiting honor.

The plot was similar to the movie, with a former sniper asked to help protect the visiting Ukrainians.[resident from an assassination attempt, only to be framed for the murder when it happens. Epps plays the role of the man that Bob Lee thought set him up, only to be revealed to be someone as blind to the situation as he was. Epps remains a main character in the cast throughout all three seasons of the series, allowing him a little more action than he was used to over the years.

7

Conviction (2002)

Omar Epps Plays Carl Upchurch

In 2002, Omar Epps took on a lead role in a made-for-TV biopic of Carl Upchurch. The film is called Conviction and is about a man who educates himself and turns his life around while serving a prison sentence. In real life, Upchurch was a former gang member who served several stints in prison and finally found a spiritual awakening, during which he began to work to improve not only his own life but also that of others. He created a group that brokered peaces in Columbus, Ohio, between the Crips and the Bloods.

Conviction tells his life story and shows how he started his mission by providing help by mediating problems between inmates and later between street gangs. The film was based on Upchurch’s own autobiography, and it aired initially on Showtime. Epps earned a nomination for hire performance from the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special.

6

Higher Learning (1995)

Omar Epps Plays Malik Williams

In 1995, iconic filmmaker John Singleton directed the drama Higher Learning, a film about incoming freshmen at a fictional university and their struggles. The three freshmen are played by Omar Epps (track star Malik Williams), Kristy Swanson (shy and naive Kristen Conner), and Michael Rapaport (lonely Remy). While they were all in the lead, there were other iconic appearances, as it featured Tyra Banks’ first movie role, and both Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube earned NAACP Image Award nominations.

However, it was Epps, Swanson, and Rapaport who really carried the movie, with Rappaport’s Remy finding acceptance in a white supremacist group and Epps’ Malik realizing that he has to do twice as much as a white student just to make people notice his work. The film received mixed reviews, with Roger Ebert writing that Singleton “uses familiar kinds of characters and then asks hard questions about them.” That is on full display with Epps’ character and his nuanced performance.

5

Resurrection (2014-2015)

Omar Epps Plays J. Martin “Marty” Bellamy

Most of Omar Epp’s television shows are set in realistic worlds, whether medical dramas, action thrillers, or crime dramas. In 2014, he did something completely different. Two years after his breakout role in House, Epps signed on for the fantasy drama series Resurrection. This show starts out with a shocking moment when the loved ones of the small town of Arcadia, Missouri, come back from the dead, unaged since they died. This lack of aging doesn’t change no matter how long ago they passed away.

It includes an eight-year-old who died in 1982, who was found alive and in China. He is brought back home by an immigration agent named Marty Bellamy, played by Omar Epps. Soon, another dead resident returns, and they warn more are coming. Epps has a tough role as an outsider who sees the unexplained happening and has to figure out how to deal with the phenomenon. The actor was a major player in both seasons and received an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance.

4

Juice (1992)

Omar Epps Plays Q

Omar Epps made his feature film debut in the same movie that rap icon Tupac Shakur also made his debut. The film is called Juice, a crime thriller about a group of four Black youths in Harlem who struggle with police harassment and rival neighborhood gangs. The four leads are Epps as Q, Tupac as Roland Bishop, Khalil Kain as Raheem Porter, and Jermaine Hopkins as Steel Thurman. They are high schoolers who often skip school, steal records for Q’s DJ dreams, and get harassed by the police and a Puerto Rican gang.

When Bishop thinks they need to rob a local convenience store, Q starts to have second thoughts about their lifestyle. Juice received mostly positive reviews, receiving 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its ability to tell the story of angry youth trying to find a way to gain self-control over their lives. Epps has the main protagonist role, with him falling out with Tupac’s Bishop, and fighting for his own survival. It made Epps a star and proved Tupac had a possible future in movies.

3

Power Book III: Raising Kanan (2021-2024)

Omar Epps Plays Detective Malcolm Howard

The third series in the Power franchise, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, takes place in the 1990s and focuses on Kanan Stark’s early years. While 50 Cent played Kanan in the original series, Mekai Curtis portrays him here as a younger man who gets into bad business to help his mother, who runs her own growing drug business. The series has continued the success of the franchise, with three seasons and a total of five planned out to finish this story.

Omar Epps plays a very complicated role here. He signed on to play Malcolm Howard, an NYPD Detective and Kanan’s biological father. While he is a police officer, he is also one of the main antagonists of the series. He does some very despicable things to achieve his goal of cleaning up the streets. He also works to win over Kanan as his father, while also trying to shut down Kanan’s mother’s drug empire. Epps left the show after season 3, but Howard played a hugely important role before he finally fell.

2

Love & Basketball (2000)

Omar Epps Plays Quincy McCall

In 2000, Omar Epps enjoyed his first major awards recognition for his role in the romantic sports drama Love & Basketball. Produced by Spike Lee and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), Epps stars as basketball star Quincy McCall, a young man who falls in love with another basketball star named Monica (played by Sanaa Lathan). The movie follows the characters through four different years of their lives, as kids, high schoolers, college students, and finally adults, when they make it to the pros.

Love & Basketball plays as a romance with basketball as the backdrop, and critics loved it. It has an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the chemistry and acting skills of both Epps and Lathan. Both received nominations at the BET Awards, with Lathan winning. It also swept the Black Reel Awards, winning for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress for Lathan. Epps also received an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance, while Lathan won for her role.

1

House (2004-2012)

Omar Epps Plays Dr. Eric Foreman

Arguably, the most important role of Omar Epps’ career came when he signed on to the medical drama series, House. The series was mostly a case-of-the-week drama series with a brilliant doctor and his handpicked team of experts. Epps plays one of those experts, Dr. Eric Foreman. House chose Foreman because he knew that this was a man who would question every decision he made, and he knew that would only make them all a better team in the long run.

House’s team imploded as the series wore on, but Dr. Foreman thrived after the fact and ended up given complete authority over the hospital by the time the series ended. Foreman, as much as House, was a major player in the show for the entire series run and Epps proved he could be a major television star in this role. House is a big reason that Omar Epps has remained one of the most in-demand TV actors of the 21st century.