Which film earned Beyoncé her first acting role as a major character, playing Carmen Brown?

Carmen: A Hip Hopera earned Beyoncé an early major acting role as Carmen Brown.

Carmen: A Hip Hopera is a 2001 MTV television film directed by Robert Townsend. It reimagines Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen as a contemporary hip-hop story set in Philadelphia, with Beyoncé playing the title character, Carmen Brown.

The film was one of Beyoncé’s earliest prominent screen performances. Its cast also included Mekhi Phifer, Mos Def, Wyclef Jean, and Regina Hall. The production used music and dramatic situations from the opera while transferring the story into a modern American setting.

Beyoncé later became widely known for film roles in Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Fighting Temptations, Dreamgirls, and Obsessed. Dreamgirls is especially easy to confuse with this title because it was a major theatrical musical film, but it came several years later.