Jharrel Jerome

Jharrel Jerome, born October 9, 1997 in The Bronx, New York City, is an American actor and emerging musician whose career began with a breakthrough performance in Barry Jenkins’s critically acclaimed drama Moonlight (2016). Raised in a close‑knit Dominican‑Haitian family, Jerome was encouraged by his mother to explore the arts while still in middle school, leading him to join the Riverdale Children’s Theatre and later graduate from the renowned Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. While attending Ithaca College he landed his first professional role as young Kevin in Moonlight, earning praise from The New York Times for his “excellent” portrayal and setting the stage for a rapid ascent in television and film. Jerome’s most lauded work came with Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries When They See Us (2019), where he embodied both young and adult Korey Wise, a performance that earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, making him the first Afro‑Latino and Dominican to receive such an honor. In the years that followed he appeared in the series Mr. Mercedes, the Boots Riley miniseries I’m a Virgo (2023), and prepared to headline the sports biopic Unstoppable (2024) as wrestler Anthony Robles, a role that premiered at TIFF where he also received the Performer Award at the festival’s tribute ceremony. Beyond acting, Jerome has cultivated a parallel music career, releasing singles such as “For Real” (2020), “Someone I’m Not” (2022), and “Chinatown” (2023), showcasing a style often compared to early‑career Kendrick Lamar and demonstrating his versatility as a singer and songwriter.