diff --git a/bin/ansible-galaxy b/bin/ansible-galaxy
index bad7df0276c..8d28ffa991d 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-galaxy
+++ b/bin/ansible-galaxy
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import shutil
 import sys
 import tarfile
 import tempfile
+import urllib
 import urllib2
 import yaml
 
@@ -203,6 +204,8 @@ def api_lookup_role_by_name(api_server, role_name):
     Uses the Galaxy API to do a lookup on the role owner/name.
     """
 
+    role_name = urllib.quote(role_name)
+
     try:
         user_name,role_name = role_name.split(".", 1)
     except: