CULTURETECHLENSShawn Fonteno
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07092 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5836.
Shawn Fonteno, born Shawn Darnell Fonteno on 8 April 1968 in South Los Angeles and raised in Watts, California, is an American actor and rapper also known as Solo. After early film roles in 3 Strikes (2000) and The Wash (2001) and a small voice part in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), he was cast by Rockstar Games as Franklin Clinton, one of the three playable protagonists of Grand Theft Auto V (2013), providing both the character's voice and his motion-capture performance. GamesRadar+'s interview with Fonteno marks his return as Franklin in Grand Theft Auto Online's The Contract update (2021), alongside Dr. Dre. In 2022 he published the memoir Game Changer, recounting his path from Watts to one of the best-known roles in video-game history.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Shawn Fonteno, born Shawn Darnell Fonteno on 8 April 1968 in South Los Angeles and raised in Watts, California, is an American actor and rapper also known as Solo. After early film roles in 3 Strikes (2000) and The Wash (2001) and a small voice part in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), he was cast by Rockstar Games as Franklin Clinton, one of the three playable protagonists of Grand Theft Auto V (2013), providing both the character's voice and
The record
- Also known as: Shawn Darnell Fonteno, Solo, OG Solo
Notes
Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 2 — 747 Program, Wave 8; 40-record packet). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Shawn Fonteno entity in the live graph at 3,523 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5836 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 929 (Voice Actors list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — Black American actor; Watts-raised performer in a landmark game role. Vital status: LIVING — convention guest in 2025 and a 2025 commercial collaboration with his Grand Theft Auto V co-star reported in his biographical record (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Voice and motion-capture performer for Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V (2013), reprised in Grand Theft Auto Online: The Contract (2021) — GamesRadar+/Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16. No sales figure for the game is asserted in this record. MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Convention and game-press photography of this subject exists; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-5836-shawn-fonteno.svg); video HELD (the Shorts Link Map catalog was checked by name and variants — no matching-entity CTL Short exists for this subject); audio HELD (no CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging; the subject's own recordings/performances are)
Sources
- GamesRadar+, "GTA Online The Contract interview: Shawn Fonteno on returning as Franklin and reuniting with Dr. Dre" (December 2021) — Fonteno is the voice of Franklin Clinton, returning in The Contract — https://www.gamesradar.com/gta-online-the-contract-interview-shawn-fonteno-on-returning-as-franklin-and-reuniting-with-dr-dre/ (primary source · build store)
- Wikipedia, "Shawn Fonteno" — born 8 April 1968, South Los Angeles, raised in Watts; voiced a Grove Street Families member in San Andreas (2004); voice and motion capture as Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and The Contract (2021); memoir Game Changer (2022) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Fonteno (build store)
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Record CTL-E-5836 · Combined Graph record U-07092 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Shawn Fonteno (CTL-E-5836).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5836/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Shawn Fonteno (CTL-E-5836) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5836/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Shawn Fonteno (CTL-E-5836).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5836/
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