Manny Jacinto

Jacinto was born in Manila, Philippines,^[4][5] and is of Filipino-Chinese descent.^[5][6] His family immigrated to Canada in 1990,^[7] when he was about three years old.^[8] He was raised in Richmond, British Columbia.^[4] He grew up playing baseball^[3] and basketball,^[9] and attended an all-boys Catholic high school, Vancouver College.^[3][10]

He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.^[3][11][12]

While interning, Jacinto participated in hip-hop dance competitions^[13] before deciding on acting as a career.^[4][8] He became frustrated by the lack of prominent Asian actors in Vancouver's film community and moved to Los Angeles.^[14]

After small roles in series including Once Upon a Time, Supernatural and iZombie, he was cast in 2015 as triad leader Wing Lei in the Canadian spy drama The Romeo Section by Chris Haddock. The role won him a Leo Award nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a Dramatic Series.^[15]

In 2016, Jacinto was cast as Jason Mendoza in the NBC comedy The Good Place.^[16] He received favourable reviews for his performance as Mendoza, an EDM-obsessed "lovable doofus" from Jacksonville, Florida, going against stereotypes of how Asian men are often portrayed in Hollywood.^{[17][18][19][20]}

In September 2018, Jacinto was cast in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise.^[21]

In November 2019, it was announced that Jacinto would have a main role on the Netflix horror drama miniseries Brand New Cherry Flavor.^[22] It was released on August 13, 2021.^[23]

In November 2021, it was announced that Jacinto would voice Scott in the animated comedy-adventure series Hailey's On It!, which premiered in June 2023 on Disney Channel.^[24]

In 2022, Jacinto voiced Lucan in the eight-episode sci-fi podcast Marigold Breach, alongside his Good Place co-star Jameela Jamil.^[25]

In November 2019, Jacinto announced that he was engaged to Canadian actress Dianne Doan.^[26] He lives in Los Angeles.^[27]

Film

Television

• Manny Jacinto at IMDb