Dominique Fishback's Fan Fiction

It's kismet that Dominique Fishback is a huge Eminem fan. This spring, she stars in Prime Video's Swarm as Dre, a woman whose obsession with a Beyoncé-type superstar drives her to take disturbing actions. Viewers might label Dre an archetypal "stan" — the term for an overzealous fan popularized by Eminem's 2000 song of the same name — but Fishback is reluctant to make judgments about Dre.

"I would describe her as a person who has a lot of love, a lot of grief and doesn't know where to put it," says Fishback, who's won attention for roles in The Deuce (HBO), The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Apple TV+) and the film Judas and the Black Messiah, which earned her a BAFTA best supporting actress nomination. "I was like, 'I'm not going to play her as if she's crazy.' I'd describe her as lost."

You wouldn't describe Fishback as lost; she's been sure of her aspirations since childhood. Growing up in Brooklyn's sometimes harsh East New York neighborhood, she remained certain she wanted to be an actor, even after a guidance counselor told her she didn't have what it takes — when she was just twelve. Rejection from the prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts didn't stop her either; she earned a theater degree from Pace University in 2013 and then debuted her one-woman off-Broadway show, Subverted, which was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award in 2015. "I want to elevate the opportunities I'm given," she says. "In my neighborhood, that's not very common."

The seven-episode Swarm marks Fishback's first time as a series lead. No surprise, she landed the part through tenacity and New York City-grown grit. Initially, she'd been tapped to play Dre's sister, a part that ultimately went to Chlöe Bailey. "I read the script and was like, 'Yeah, I gotta play Dre.'" So she reached out to Donald Glover, who serves as cocreator and executive producer alongside showrunner Janine Nabers, who was a writer and producer on Glover's Emmy-winning show Atlanta.

Embodying the wisdom of her hero Eminem, who famously rapped that "opportunity comes once in a lifetime," Fishback made her case. Suffice it to say, her pitch worked.

"I never want to catch up to my own self with what I can do as an actor," she says. "I don't want to be imprisoned by my own fears. I want to give it my all."

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #2, 2023, under the title, "Fan Fiction."