fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Emmanuel Kabongo (born December 25, 1986) is a Canadian actor and producer. Born and raised in Zaire before it became the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kabongo immigrated to Canada with his family in the 1990s.[1] He began his acting career as an extra before achieving recognition for his performance as the lead protagonist in the acclaimed web series Teenagers (2014–2017), for which he earned his first Canadian Screen Award nomination.[2]

Emmanuel Kabongo
Kabongo in 2020
Born	Emmanuel Kabongo (1986-12-25) December 25, 1986 (age 35) Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Education	Canadian Film Centre
Occupation	Actor, producer
Years active	2009–present

Kabongo is also known for his performances in film and television, including roles on the CBC Television series 21 Thunder (2017) and Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017–2018) and in feature films such as The Animal Project (2013), Antibirth (2016), and Brown Girl Begins (2017). He played a gladiator in Paul W. S. Anderson's Pompeii (2014) and has guest-starred in series such as Murdoch Mysteries (2013) and Star Trek: Discovery (2020).

Kabongo earned a second Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2022, for his performance in the television film Death She Wrote.[3]

Early life

Kabongo was born and spent his early years in Lubumbashi, a city in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).[4] He later relocated with his family to South Africa during the war. He has four brothers, including basketball player Myck Kabongo, and one sister.[4][5] In the 1990s, Kabongo immigrated to Toronto with his family.[1][6] Kabongo's father often worked as an extra in film and television.[5]

During school, Kabongo played competitive basketball; he later turned down a basketball scholarship from the University of New Brunswick to pursue acting.[4] Kabongo struggled with scoliosis in his youth.[4] Before he started acting, Kabongo worked several jobs, including at a daycare, a Foot Locker, at the Canadian National Exhibition, and vacuuming floors and cleaning toilets at a train station.[1]

Career

Kabongo began acting in 2009, appearing in a little seen short film.[4] He subsequently worked as an extra on the television series Nikita and Flashpoint.[4] One of Kabongo's early background actor jobs was on the hit 2004 film Mean Girls.[4][5]

Kabongo's first role in a full-length feature film came in 2013 with the release of The Animal Project, directed by Ingrid Veninger. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received generally positive reviews.[7]

Throughout the 2010s, Kabongo guest-starred in a variety of television programs, including Call Me Fitz (2012), Murdoch Mysteries (2013), Rookie Blue (2013–2014), and Quantico (2015).[8][6] He completed an actor's residency at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre in 2015.[9]

In 2014, Kabongo portrayed a gladiator in Paul W. S. Anderson's romantic historical disaster film Pompeii. The film won the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Golden Screen Award for 2014 as the year's top-grossing Canadian film.[10]

Alongside filmmaker M. H. Murray, Kabongo co-produced the first season of the web series Teenagers.[11] In 2013, Murray approached Kabongo with the scripts and asked him to help produce the series; they subsequently cast the rest of the characters together using only actors from Toronto.[12] Louis Chunovic of Playback published a piece on the series, writing that "the young creators of Teenagers had to have plenty of luck, pluck, talent, and grit to get this far. And that portends a Hollywood ending".[11] Kabongo also starred as the lead male protagonist in the series.[13] Teenagers received positive reviews from critics and was frequently compared to the Degrassi franchise and the UK television series Skins.[14][15] The series amassed more than 10 million combined views on YouTube over the course of three seasons, from 2014 to 2017.[16] For his performance in the second season of Teenagers, Kabongo earned his first Canadian Screen Award nomination.[2]

In 2016, Kabongo produced and starred in A Man's Story, a short film for which he received funding from bravoFACT.[17] The short film premiered at the ReelWorld Film Festival.[18] That year, he also played a supporting role in Antibirth, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released on September 2, 2016 in the U.S., by IFC Midnight.[19]

In September 2016, CBC announced it had commissioned a one-hour drama series that follows the star players of an under-21 soccer academy in Montreal, titled 21 Thunder, with Kabongo slated to star as one of the lead characters, an Ivory Coast mid-fielder named Junior Lolo.[20][21] The series premiered in Canada on July 31, 2017, to generally positive reviews.[22] Also that year, Kabongo appeared in three episodes of the CBC series Frankie Drake Mysteries as a boxer named Moses,[23] and he starred opposite Mouna Traoré in Brown Girl Begins, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Sharon Lewis.[24]

In 2020, he starred in an episode of the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery as V’Kir.[25] That year, he also played a supporting role in the Canadian political comedy film Québexit, which premiered at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival in September 2020.[26]

Kabongo received a second Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2022, for his performance in the television film Death She Wrote.[3]

Upcoming projects

In 2022, Kabongo was cast in two feature films: Christina Cooper’s superhero film, Rising 6, and April Mullen’s sci-fi thriller, Hello Stranger.[27]

Influences

Kabongo found early acting inspiration in action films from the 1990s that his mother showed him as a child.[28] In an interview with CBC Arts, Kabongo said that "taking acting serious came from watching how my mom reacted to films of the '90s ... [She] loves Denzel, Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone... My mom watched all those movies growing up, and knowing how that made her feel, I just wanted to do the same thing for her."[28]

Kabongo also cites Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Mahershala Ali, Viola Davis, and Daniel Day-Lewis as acting inspirations.[5]

Personal life

Kabongo was active during the protests following the police murder of George Floyd in summer 2020.[29] In an interview with Harry Rosen, he said that "it’s important to me as a Black man to stand up for what is right, supporting the cause against police brutality."[5]

Kabongo became engaged to his girlfriend, Raquel Melnichuk, in December 2021.[30]

Accolades

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2013	African Entertainment Awards	Best African Actor	Self	Won
2014	Los Angeles Web Series Festival[31]	Outstanding Drama Series	Teenagers	Won
2014	Black Canadian Awards	Best Male Actor	Self	Nominated
2015	Black Canadian Awards	Best Male Actor	Self	Nominated
2016	ReelWorld Film Festival	Impact Award	A Man's Story	Won
2016	4th Canadian Screen Awards[32]	Best Performance in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media	Teenagers	Nominated
2017	International Academy of Web Television[33]	Best Male Performance – Drama	Teenagers	Nominated
2017	AfroGlobal Television Excellence Awards	Rising Star Award	Self	Won
2019	ReelWorld Film Festival	Trailblazer Award	Self	Won
2022	10th Canadian Screen Awards[3]	Lead Actor, Television Film or Miniseries	Death She Wrote	Nominated

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	The Red Pearl	John	Minor role
2011	Night Express	Crazy Billy	Minor role
2013	The Animal Project	Ray	Main role
2014	Pompeii	African Gladiator	Minor role
2016	The Other Half	Officer James	Supporting role
	Antibirth	Luke	Supporting role
	A Man's Story	Kam Eganda	bravoFACT short film, lead role, also producer
2017	Brown Girl Begins	Tony	Lead role
2018	Extracurricular	Mike Vanden	Supporting role
2019	Run This Town	Abe	Supporting Role
2020	Québexit	James Brodie
2021	Death She Wrote	Rand Tollson
2023	Hello Stranger	Joshua
TBA	Write Place, Write Time	Daniel Rose
TBA	Rising 6

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Breakout	George Hyatt	1 episode
	Forensic Factor	Jack	1 episode
	Flashpoint	Kevin	1 episode
	Nikita	Safwani's Bodyguard #4	1 episode
2011	Christmas Magic	Chef #1	Television film
	InSecurity	Shinka	1 episode
2012	Cybergeddon	FBI agent #1	2 episode
	Call Me Fitz	Joe	1 episode
2013	Murdoch Mysteries	Al	1 episode
	Mayday	First Officer Beyene	1 episode
	Black Actress	Jessie	Web series: 1 episode
2014	Defiance	EMC Soldier	1 episode
	The Ron James Show	Actor	2 episode
2013-2014	Rookie Blue	Shay Bishop	2 episodes
2014–2017	Teenagers	T	Lead role, Web Series: 22 episodes
2015	Hemlock Grove	Marshall	2 episodes
	Quantico	Kamran Tahan	1 episode
2017	21 Thunder	Junior Lolo	Lead role; 8 episodes
2017–2019	Frankie Drake Mysteries	Moses	5 episodes
2018	Evolve: Year Zero	Blue	Lead role, Web Series: 8 episodes
	Darken: Before the Dark	Artemis	Web series: 4 episodes
	Kristal Clear	Benjamin	Web series: 5 episodes
	Taken	Domingo	1 episode
2019	Street Legal	Roman Mussi	2 episodes
	Ransom	Tyler LeFebure	2 episodes
	Departure	Orderly	3 episodes
	Hudson & Rex	Valentine Anson	1 episodes
	V-Wars	Jack Fields	2 episodes
2020	Star Trek: Discovery	V’Kir	1 episode
2021	Death She Wrote	Rand Tolson	Television Film
	True Story	Man	2 episode
2022	The Kings of Napa	Everett James	1 episode
	NCIS: Hawaiʻi	Pirate 2	1 episode
	Chateau Laurier	Actor	Web series: 5 episode

References

External links

• Emmanuel Kabongo at IMDb

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