Birth Name: Tupac Amara Shakur (aka 2Pac) Birthdate: June 16, 1971 Birthplace: New York City Date of Death: September 13, 1996 Occupations: Actor, Musician

Significant Other(s):
Wife: Keisha Morris; married April 29, 1995 while Shakur was in prison; marriage annulled

Family:
Mother: Afeni Shakur
Father: William Garland
Stepfather: Mutulu Shakur
Half-brother: Maurice Harding
Godfather: Geronimo Pratt, political activist; incarcerated since 1970

Biography
A charismatic African-American leading man and rap artist, Shakur began acting at age 13 in a benefit performance of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and later studied acting at the Baltimore School of the Arts. In his late teens, he moved to San Francisco with his family and joined the rap group Digital Underground, where his socially conscious lyrics earned him the nickname 'Rebel of the Underground'. Shakur released his first solo album, "2Pacalypse Now", in 1991, and the following year co-starred in his feature debut "Juice", as the trigger happy antagonist Bishop. He followed up with John Singleton's sophomore effort "Poetic Justice" (1992), as Lucky, a single-father postal carrier, who falls in love with Justice (Janet Jackson). Subsequent film appearances included "Above the Rim" (1994), as a basketball hustler, and the direct-to-video "Bullet" (1995), as a drug dealer. Before his untimely death from gunshot wounds in September 1996 at age 25, Shakur had completed two features: "Gang Related", as a murderous cop, and Vondie Curtis Hall's "GRIDLOCK'd" (both 1997), as a junkie trying to go straight.

Factoids:
Made professional acting debut in a 1984 production of A Raisin in the Sun, part of a benefit for Jesse Jackson's first presidential campaign
Charges for shooting two Atlanta cops dropped in 1993
Shot dead after a Tyson fight

Education:
Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore, Maryland