Manny Jacinto

Manny Jacinto initially planned to be a civil engineer and then a dancer before settling on an acting career in which he landed recurring roles on Canadian spy drama "The Romeo Section" (CBS, 2015-) and fantasy sitcom "The Good Place" (NBC, 2016-). Born in Manila, Philippines in 1987 but raised in Richmond, British Columbia, Jacinto studied Civil Engineering at his home state's university while simultaneously competing as a hip-hop dancer in various competitions. He also attended classes at the Actor's Foundry in Vancouver and after graduating decided to focus all his efforts on pursuing a career in Hollywood instead. He made his on-screen debut in short film "Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade" (2012) and a year later guested on an episode of fairy tale series "Once Upon a Time" (ABC, 2011-). Brief appearances on "Supernatural" (The WB, 2005-), "The 100" (The CW, 2014-) and "Rogue" (Audience Network, 2013-) then followed, as did minor roles in LGBT rom-com "John Apple Jack" (2013) and TV movies "Paper Angels" (2014), "Only Human" (2014) and "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story" (2014). Jacinto then became something of a horror regular, showing up in "Bates Motel" (A&E, 2013-17), "iZombie" (The CW, 2015-) and "Wayward Pines" (Fox, 2015-) as well as the films "Dead Rising: Watchtower" (2015), "Even Lambs Have Teeth" (2015) and "Peelers" (2016). After a first season stint on spy thriller "The Romeo Section" (CBS, 2015-) as triad leader Wing Lei, Jacinto was cast as Jason Mendoza, a small-time drug dealer mistaken for a silent Buddhist monk named Jianyu Li, in the afterlife comedy "The Good Place" (NBC, 2016-).