Jharrel Jerome is an American actor who made a name for starring in Moonlight and the Netflix miniseries When They See Us.
Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about his life and career thus far!
- Jharrel Jerome was born on October 9, 1997
- He is an American actor
- He is best known for starring in Barry Jenkins’s drama film Moonlight (2016)
- And for portraying Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries When They See Us (2019)
- For the latter, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
- Jerome was born in 1997 and raised in the Bronx, New York
- He is of Dominican descent and identifies as Afro-Latino
- He grew up in a close-knit family with parents who he described as “loving”
- His mother suggested he pursue acting when he was in eighth grade
- After which he joined the Riverdale Children’s Theatre, a local youth theatre organization
- He attended and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
- Commuting to Manhattan each day by train
- Jerome enrolled as an undergraduate at Ithaca College
- Shorlty after, he was cast in his first professional acting role in the 2016 independent film Moonlight, as young Kevin
- A.O. Scott wrote in the New York Times that he was “excellent” in the role
- Director Barry Jenkins said about Jerome, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “When you watch Jharrel in that movie, he’s not a guy who’s been over-rehearsing. That’s a dude learning by doing. It’s amazing”
- Since 2017, Jerome has appeared in the Audience series Mr. Mercedes
- He auditioned for the role of young Korey Wise in the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us, based on the Central Park jogger case
- After his audition the series’ director, Ava DuVernay, asked him to read the lines for adult Korey Wise
- He was subsequently cast in both roles
- Jerome grew close to Wise throughout filming
- He said in a Los Angeles Times interview, “He’s my brother now. I look up to him. I look up to his courage. He’s taught me so much on how to be strong”
- Jerome and his Moonlight co-star, Ashton Sanders, won the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Kiss
- Jerome was nominated and won in 2019 for a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category
- He won for When They See Us
- He is the first Afro-Latino actor to win an Emmy for acting