Top Boy star Jasmine Jobson is set to play Somali-British boxer Ramla Ali in the upcoming biopic In The Shadows, taking over the role from Letitia Wright.

As Variety reports, Wright who was originally attached to role last year but has since left.

Jobson says playing the role is “a complete honour,” adding how she feels “to be trusted to help share her incredible story.”

“Not only to celebrate her talent, strength, and determination as a boundary-breaking athlete–but also as an incredibly inspirational Somali woman who has overcome huge adversity,” she continued. “Her experience of arriving in the U.K. as a refugee is important and has the power to educate and empower people at a time of so much division. I’m thrilled to get started.”

The film will also star Finn Cole and Gershwyn Eustache Jr. The film will also be directed by award-winning documentary director Anthony Wonke, making this his first narrative feature. Producers include Lee Magiday, Madeleine Sanderson and Ali herself.

The film will tell audiences Ali’s story as a Somalian refugee who started practicing boxing without the knowledge of her “strictly Muslim” parents, as Variety describes. Her career has led her to become the first boxing champion of Somali-British origin. She also became the first boxer to represent Somalia at the 2020 Olympic Games and participated in Saudi Arabia’s first professional female boxing match. Personally, her boxing career led her to her husband, Richard Moore (Cole), who converted to Islam as “a testament to his profound love for her.” As the film’s description states, it is a “love story between her and Moore as they navigate racial and cultural barriers.”

Jasmine Jobson

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