Shawn Fonteno

Shawn D. "Solo" Fonteno is an African-American actor, voice actor, DJ rapper and recording artist who is best known as the voice and the acting performer of Franklin Clinton from the video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Fonteno's performance in Grand Theft Auto V was mainly recorded using motion capture technology. He is perhaps most well known for providing his voice for the character of Franklin Clinton in the hit video game Grand Theft Auto V, he previously lent his voice for the part of a gangster in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

His last role was in the 2001 film The Wash, so he leveraged the experience of Luke and Ogg to improve his techniques. "The process is real deep," says Fonteno. "It's just conditioning yourself to imagine what's going on in a square room -- and you have to imagine it's a living room, and you have to close your eyes and imagine acting inside a real living room. " Fonteno hopes to parlay his work on GTA V toward a larger acting career, while Ogg and Luke say working on the game has reignited their passions for acting. He is the older cousin of Young Maylay, the voice of Carl Johnson and also a rapper.

Shawn was born on April 8, 1968 in South Los Angeles, California, and raised in Watts, California. He grew up in the Los Angeles residential neighborhood of Watts, home to much of the African-American black population in LA and began joining an African-American street gang and started selling drugs before a near-fatal shooting prompted him to leave gangsters and turn his life around. He had truly faced the dangers and demons of a gang banging thug life. While he was a gang member (or gang banger) and drug dealer, he was also a thief and a car stealer and all the gangster stuff Franklin did in GTA 5 was more or less what Shawn did in his early teen years. After dabbling in music and movies, Fonteno was recruited to help Rockstar by friend DJ Pooh, a consultant for Grand Theft Auto V and co-producer and writer for San Andreas (fans of the movie Friday might remember him as the character Red). Initially, Fonteno sought out and helped other actors vying for the role of Franklin, but eventually ended up with the role himself after several weeks. For Fonteno, his acting skills were a bit rusty.