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[9] and basketball,[10] and attended an all-boys Catholic high school, Vancouver College.[9][11]

He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.[9][12][13]

While interning, Jacinto participated in hip-hop dance competitions[14] before deciding on acting as a career.[4][8] He became frustrated by the lack of other Asian actors in Vancouver and moved to Los Angeles.[15]

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.[16]

In 2016, Jacinto was cast as Jianyu Li / Jason Mendoza in the NBC comedy The Good Place.[17] 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.[18][19][20][21]

In September 2018, Jacinto was cast in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise.[22]

In November 2019, it was announced that Jacinto would have a main role on the Netflix horror drama miniseries Brand New Cherry Flavor.[23] It was released on August 13, 2021.[24]

In November 2021, it was announced that Jacinto would voice Scott in the animated comedy-adventure series Hailey’s On It!, slated to premiere in 2023.[25]

In 2022, Jacinto voiced Lucan in the eight-episode sci-fi podcast Marigold Breach, alongside his Good Place co-star Jameela Jamil.[26]

In November 2019, Jacinto announced that he was engaged to fellow Canadian actress Dianne Doan.[27] He lives in Los Angeles.[28]

• Manny Jacinto at IMDb