The Hate U Give star Amandla Stenberg has been tapped for a lead role in the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen, at Universal.

She is the first actor to be cast in the project. She is the second actor to be cast in the project after Kaitlyn Dever.

Stenberg will play Alana, described as by Deadline as “a high school senior whose cheery façade and social-media savvy mask a deeper loneliness and isolation, and whose response to the death of a classmate ignites a movement.” This role has been “reconceived and expanded for the film, with Stenberg singing a new original song composed expressly for the film. She is writing the song in collaboration with Pasek and Paul.”

Steven Levenson wrote the script and Stephen Chbosky will direct the film.

Stenberg was last seen on-screen in Damien Chazelle’s Netflix series, The Eddy, opposite André Holland.

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