Manny Jacinto

Jacinto was born in Manila, Philippines,^[6][7] and is of Filipino-Chinese descent.^[7][8][9] His family emigrated to Canada in 1990,^[10] when he was about three years old.^[11] He was raised in Richmond, British Columbia.^[12] He grew up playing baseball^[5] and basketball,^[13] and attended Vancouver College, an all-boys Catholic high school.^[5][14]

He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.^[5][15][16]

While interning, Jacinto participated in hip-hop dance competitions^[17] before deciding on acting as a career.^[12][11] He became frustrated by the lack of prominent Asian actors in Vancouver's film community and moved to Los Angeles.^[18] 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.^[19] In 2016, Jacinto was cast as Jason Mendoza in the NBC comedy The Good Place.^[20] 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.^{[21][22][23][24]}

In September 2018, Jacinto was cast in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise.^[25] In November 2019, it was announced that Jacinto would have a main role on the Netflix horror drama miniseries Brand New Cherry Flavor.^[26] It was released on August 13, 2021.^[27] 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.^[28] In 2022, Jacinto voiced Lucan in the eight-episode sci-fi podcast Marigold Breach, alongside his Good Place co-star Jameela Jamil.^[29] He portrayed Qimir in 2024's The Acolyte.^[30]

In November 2019, Jacinto announced that he was engaged to Descendants actress Dianne Doan,^[31] whom he had met while they were both performing as dancers.^[32] In a 2025 interview with People, it was confirmed the two of them had quietly gotten married in 2021.^[32][33] Additionally, in an interview with GMA Network, he referred to Doan as his wife.^[34] He lives in Los Angeles.^[35]