In a Netflix biopic that dropped November 11, 2024, director Chiwetel Ejiofor brings to screen the complex life of Robert DeShaun Peace, a Yale biochemistry graduate from Newark whose story goes far deeper than headlines might suggest. The film, based on Jeff Hobbs’ New York Times bestseller “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” has already claimed a spot in Netflix’s Top 10.
Born in 1980 in East Orange, New Jersey, Rob Peace showed remarkable intellectual gifts from his earliest days. “When he was about 3 [years old] in day care, the lady there told Jackie they were calling him ‘the professor,'” Hobbs told NPR in 2014. “And she thought they were making fun of her, or, worse, they were making fun of her son, before she realized they were calling him that earnestly in reference to his intelligence and curiosity.”
Rob’s early life was shaped by two powerful forces: his mother Jackie’s unwavering support and his father Skeet’s influence, even after imprisonment. In 1987, when Rob was seven, Skeet was found guilty of murder in the shooting deaths of Charlene Moore and Estella Moore and sentenced to life in prison. Despite this, he remained actively involved in Rob’s education through weekly phone calls and visits.
“[Skeet] would call home every day and make sure he did his homework,” Rob’s uncle, Dante Peace, told NJ.com in July 2024. “So I think he had some level of a higher intelligence as well that fed [Rob].”
At St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, Rob excelled both academically and athletically, particularly in water polo. His future was secured when Charles Cawley, a St. Benedict’s alumnus and bank executive, provided a full scholarship for his college education. Rob went on to Yale University in 1998, majoring in molecular biophysics and biochemistry – a program that “only about 20 people a year majored in,” according to Hobbs. While at Yale, he worked in a cancer research lab at Yale Medical School and was captain of the water polo team for two years.
At Yale, Rob sold marijuana, allegedly becoming the biggest dealer on campus and accumulating around $100,000. After graduating with honors in 2002, he returned to Newark to teach biology at St. Benedict’s until 2007 and worked at Newark Liberty International Airport. He continued selling marijuana throughout this time.
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Skeet died of brain cancer in prison in 2006, when Rob was 26 years old. Five years later, in May 2011, Rob was shot and killed in a Newark basement marijuana grow house. He was 30 years old. Police arrested one of his friends who owned the house for the marijuana confiscated from the property, but the shooter was never identified.
Over 400 people attended his funeral, representing connections from Yale to Newark. “It [was] very painful, also beautiful — people from all over the world in downtown Newark,” Hobbs recalled to NPR.
The 2024 film adaptation stays true to the “fundamental bones” of Rob’s story, according to Ejiofor, who spoke to Today about the project. The director worked closely with Jackie Peace, who praised both Mary J. Blige’s portrayal of her and Jay Will’s performance as Rob.
“We would see it was me, especially when she got that attitude thing,” Jackie told NJ.com. “When she was talking with that attitude, I said ‘damn, she got me right there.'”
Father Edwin Leahy, headmaster of St. Benedict’s, offered a perspective on Rob’s legacy: “Anytime somebody that age loses their life, it’s tragic, but I guess what I’m saying is… I don’t think Rob’s tragedy is any greater than the tragedy of the unknown person who gets killed on 11th Street. That’s tragic as well.”
Hobbs, who spent over 300 hours interviewing people who knew Rob, summed up his friend’s impact: “The point was to experience him, his friendship, and maybe hopefully be impacted. Everybody’s life matters. Rob didn’t need a book written about his life for his life to matter.”
The Netflix film “Rob Peace” continues to spark conversations about education, opportunity, and systemic challenges in American society, while preserving the memory of a young man whose life touched hundreds across vastly different social spheres.
