Light It Up (film)

Light It Up
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Craig Bolotin
Produced by	Tracy Edmonds
Written by	Craig Bolotin
Starring	Usher Raymond Forest Whitaker Judd Nelson Rosario Dawson Robert Ri'chard Sara Gilbert Clifton Collins, Jr. Fredro Starr Vanessa L. Williams
Narrated by	Robert Ri'chard
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Elliot Davis
Edited by	Wendy Greene Bricmont
Production company	Edmonds Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	November 10, 1999
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$5,985,690

Light It Up is a 1999 American hostage crime teen drama film starring an ensemble cast that consists of R&B singer/actor Usher Raymond (in his first leading role), Rosario Dawson, Forest Whitaker, and Vanessa L. Williams. The film was written and directed by Craig Bolotin, and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and his wife Tracy Edmonds.

The film follows six teenage high school seniors who hold a wounded police officer hostage and barricade themselves inside the school.

In an urban Queens high school students, Julius Zacharias 'Ziggy' Malone (Robert Ri'chard), Lester DeWitt (Usher Raymond), who lost his father, hard-working student Stephanie Williams (Rosario Dawson), criminal Rodney J. Templeton (Fredro Starr), rebellious pregnant Lynn Sabatini (Sara Gilbert), and Robert Tremont a.k.a. "Rivers" (Clifton Collins, Jr.), attend the history class of Ken Knowles (Judd Nelson). Police officer Dante Jackson (Forest Whitaker) tries to arrest Lester after a misunderstanding when the classroom's windows are broken by rocks, Mr. Knowles takes them to the principal's office, where Principal Allen Armstrong (Glynn Turman) tells Knowles to take them "anywhere".