Manny Jacinto

Manuel Luis Jacinto (born August 19, 1987) is a Canadian actor. After several small roles on television, his breakout role came as Jason Mendoza on the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2016–2020). He has appeared as Waring "Wade" Espiritu in the neo-noir thriller film Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) and as Fritz in the action drama film Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Early life
Jacinto was born in Manila, Philippines, and is of Filipino-Chinese descent. His family immigrated to Canada in 1990, when he was about three years old. He was raised in Richmond, British Columbia. He grew up playing baseball and basketball, and attended an all-boys Catholic high school, Vancouver College. He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.

Career
While interning, Jacinto participated in hip-hop dance competitions before deciding on acting as a career. He became frustrated by the lack of other Asian actors in Vancouver and moved to Los Angeles. 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. In 2016, Jacinto was cast as Jianyu Li / Jason Mendoza in the NBC comedy The Good Place. 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. In September 2018, Jacinto was cast in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise. In November 2019, it was announced that Jacinto would have a main role on the Netflix horror drama miniseries Brand New Cherry Flavor. It was released on August 13, 2021. Jacinto is the voice of Scott Denonga from the Disney animated comedy-adventure series Hailey’s On It!, which started airing in 2023. In 2022, Jacinto voiced Lucan in the eight-episode sci-fi podcast Marigold Breach, alongside his Good Place co-star Jameela Jamil.

Anime Films

 * Belle (2021) - Shinobu Hisatake