Disney Channel star and recording artist Zendaya will star as R&B singer Aaliyah in a new Lifetime original movie, the network announced Monday.
Zendaya, who most recently starred in Disney’s Shake It Up! And performed on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, will portray Aaliyah, a rising R&B music star in the late 1990s who tragically died in a 2001 plane crash.
Zendaya will record four of Aaliyah’s songs for the film, which is based on the bestseller Aaliyah: More Than a Woman, according to Lifetime. The movie will be produced by Aaliyah Productions, Inc., with Howard Braunstein (The Informant!) and Debra Martin Chase (The Princess Diaries, Sparkle) serving as executive producers.
The Aaliyah biopic follows Lifetime's announcement last month that it is developing an original movie about the life of Whitney Houston.
