12 Facts About the Star Wars Actor

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Acolyte

Since the big reveal in episode 5 of Star Wars: The Acolyteand yes, some juicy scenes from episode 6 too, the internet has been ablaze with images, video clips, and bloodthirsty tweets about the series' villain, Manny Jacinto. Jacinto plays a carefree, drunken apothecary named Qimir, who, as we learn in episode 5, also happens to be Maes' master and a fearsome Jedi-killing warrior (and maybe a Sith Lord?).

The audience praised Jacinto's performance in The Acolytewith many commenting on his incredible range, on-screen charisma and, uh, muscular arms. But this isn't the first time legions of viewers have fallen for the versatile Canadian actor. Fans of the hit NBC comedy The right place Jacinto will be remembered as the awkward, simple-minded Jason Mendoza, arguably the role that launched his career and the first avalanche of thirsty tweets about the Asian-American star.

Whether you've been following Jacinto's acting journey for a while or consider yourself a new sidekick, here are 12 things you may not have known (or may have forgotten) about this entertainer and showbiz idol.

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Manny Jacinto got his first break in 2013 when he appeared in an episode of the ABC fantasy series Once upon a time.

Later that year, he also appeared in an episode of the WB (later CW) series Supernatural. He then played small roles in other shows like The 100, iZombie, Bates Motel And Capricious pines before being chosen as the main character in The right place in 2016. His other television projects include appearing as Bobby Ato in an episode of The Good Doctorplaying Nicole Kidman's right-hand man Yao in the Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers and the voice of Scott Denoga in the Disney animated series Haileys on it!.

He was born in the Philippines and raised in British Columbia.

Jacinto, who is of Filipino-Chinese descent, was born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to Richmond, British Columbia, with his family at the age of three. After living in Canada for a time, he later moved to Los Angeles as an adult to find a more diverse acting community.

Manny Jacinto has been chosen for Top Gun: Maverick as Lieutenant Billy Fritz Avalone, one of the pilots trained by Tom Cruise's character, Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell.

But you might not have noticed because he barely had any screen time (and no lines!), which is a real tragedy.

Jacinto was selected as one of People magazine's Sexiest Men of 2020.

He makes the list along with 12 other celebrities including Brad Pitt, John David Washington, Pedro Pascal, Paul Rudd, Maluma, Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan.

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He holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Jacinto comes from a family of engineers on his father's side, so engineering was his backup plan in case acting didn't work out (luckily for him and us, it did!). As a student, he intern in a company who contributed to the construction of the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre and the redesigned Port Mann Bridge.

He was a competitive hip-hop dancer before pursuing professional acting.

While in university, he was a hip-hop dancer and joined a competitive hip-hop dance team based in Vancouver. He and his team won 10^th place (out of more than 40 countries) at the 2013 Hip-Hop World Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2018 Interview with GQJacinto shared that when he saw hip-hop dance group Jabbawockeez perform on Best Dance Group in the Americas That's when his interest in dancing began. He said, “That was the first time I saw that Asians could actually do this, look cool, and maybe even make a career out of it.” And from that moment on, everything changed. It changed slowly, but it brought a huge change in my life.

He is engaged to Vietnamese-Canadian actress Dianne Doan.

Among other projects, Doan played the role of Kora in Agents of SHIELDYidu in the History Channel original series VikingsMai Ling in Cinemax action series Warrior and Lonnie in Disney Descendants film franchise.

In 2019, Jacinto revealed that his character Jason Mendoza in The right place prompted him to finally pop the question to Doan, his longtime girlfriend. His heartwarming proposal, recounted in VultureIt sounds like something out of a movie: I took her to places that really meant a lot to us. Where I first met her, where I first saw her, where we had our first date, and where we had our first dance class. I had canvases written with a message about why these places were important to us. At each place, I had her close her eyes, I held the canvas, and she opened her eyes. I took her to five different places, and at the last place, our families were waiting and I proposed to them.

He prepared for his dual role as Qimir/the Stranger in The Acolyte for eight months in the remote English town of Windsor.

According to a interview with StarWars.comJacinto voluntarily isolated himself for eight months to focus solely on his character. For the role of Qimir, he was inspired by both Johnny Depps and Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean and Toshiro Mifunes Kikuchiyo in The Seven Samurai and he even practiced walking and talking like Qimir in his local grocery store.

Showrunner Leslye Headland said Well that she modeled the Stranger partly after the character Drunken Cat from the 1966 Hong Kong martial arts film Come drink with meIn the film, Drunken Cat first appears as a beggar and an alcoholic, but is later revealed to be a fearsome Shaolin master. Jacinto sharing that the film directed by Jackie Chan Drunken Masteranother Hong Kong martial arts film, also inspired his performance as the Stranger.

Jacinto did most of his fight stunts in The Acolyte.

As the Well cover article on The Acolyte Jacinto reportedly performed most of his fight scenes himself. To prepare for the epic battle where the Stranger takes down several Jedi, Jacinto trained diligently for nearly four months, using his background as a dancer while honing his boxing and martial arts skills.

A clip of Jacinto practicing his fight choreography, originally posted on Jacinto's Instagram, has been making the rounds on social media:

Qimir/The Stranger was originally supposed to play a much smaller role in this first season of The Acolyte.

In a recent interview with ReverseHeadland revealed that she had originally planned for Qimir/the Stranger's role to be much smaller this season, but when she saw Jacinto's screen test during pre-production, she knew she had to develop his story further so audiences could see more of him in the series.

Jacinto said his father was his number one fan.

Jacinto's father, who is an engineer, was initially hesitant about his son's plans to pursue a more creative path. But since he starred in The right placeJacinto says his father has become his biggest fan.

Jacinto has spoken frequently about the importance of Asian American representation in the media.

He has openly admitted to being very thoughtful and careful about the roles he chooses to take on, saying Hustle in 2021: His [always been] It's a big thing for me to choose roles that aren't stereotypical and show people, especially other Asian kids, that they don't have to be nerds or stereotypes. It's a conscious decision.

During the aforementioned GQ interviewHe spoke about his continued commitment to acting and the lack of representation of Asian Americans in film and television. What kept me going was the fact that this industry is so unfair. What's going on in the world? Why isn't what I see on TV the same as what I see in real life? That really touched me. That's what pushed me to move forward, to try to change that,” he shared at the time.

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