Emmanuel Kabongo
Emmanuel Kabongo | |
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![]() Kabongo in 2020 | |
Born | |
Education | Canadian Film Centre |
Occupation | Actor, producer |
Years active | 2009–present |
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 1998. 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 a Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2016.[1]
Kabongo is also known for his performances in film and television. He played recurring roles on the CBC Television series 21 Thunder (2017) and Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017–2018) and has starred in the feature films 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).
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).[2] He later relocated with his family to South Africa during the war. He has four brothers, including basketball player Myck Kabongo, and one sister.[2][3] In 1998, Kabongo immigrated to Toronto with his family.[4] Kabongo's father often worked as an extra in film and television.[3]
During school, Kabongo played competitive basketball; he later turned down a basketball scholarship from the University of New Brunswick to pursue acting.[2] Kabongo struggled with scoliosis as a teenager.[2]
Career[]
Kabongo began acting in 2009, appearing in an amateur short film.[2] He subsequently worked as an extra on the television series Nikita and Flashpoint.[2] One of Kabongo's early background actor jobs was on the hit 2004 film Mean Girls.[2][3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Emmanuel_Kabongo.png/170px-Emmanuel_Kabongo.png)
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.[5]
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).[6][4] He completed an actor's residency at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre in 2015.[7]
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.[8]
Alongside filmmaker M. H. Murray, Kabongo co-produced the first season of the web series Teenagers.[9] 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.[10] 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".[9] Kabongo also starred as the lead male protagonist in the series.[11] Teenagers received positive reviews from critics and was frequently compared to the Degrassi franchise and the UK television series Skins.[12][13] The series amassed more than 10 million combined views on YouTube over the course of three seasons, from 2014 to 2017.[14]
In 2016, Kabongo produced and starred in A Man's Story, a short film for which he received funding from bravoFACT.[15] The short film premiered at the ReelWorld Film Festival.[16] 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.[17]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/The_2017_CFC_Annual_Gala_%26_Auction_%2832535112242%29.jpg/180px-The_2017_CFC_Annual_Gala_%26_Auction_%2832535112242%29.jpg)
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.[18][19] The series premiered in Canada on July 31, 2017, to generally positive reviews.[20] Also that year, Kabongo appeared in three episodes of the CBC series Frankie Drake Mysteries as a boxer named Moses,[21] and he starred opposite Mouna Traoré in Brown Girl Begins, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Sharon Lewis.[22]
In 2020, he starred in an episode of the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery as V’Kir.[23] 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.[24]
Influences[]
Kabongo found early acting inspiration in action films from the 1990s that his mother showed him as a child.[25] 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."[25]
Kabongo also cites Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Mahershala Ali, Viola Davis, and Daniel Day-Lewis as acting inspirations.[3]
Personal life[]
Kabongo was active during the protests following the police murder of George Floyd in summer 2020.[26] 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."[3]
Accolades[]
Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | African Entertainment Awards | Best African Actor | Self | Won |
2014 | Los Angeles Web Series Festival[27] | Outstanding Drama Series | Teenagers | |
2016 | Canadian Screen Awards[28] | Best Performance in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media | Nominated | |
2017 | International Academy of Web Television[29] | Best Male Performance – Drama |
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 | Antibirth | Luke | Supporting role |
A Man's Story | Kam Eganda | bravoFACT short film, also producer | |
2017 | Brown Girl Begins | Tony | Supporting role |
2020 | Québexit | James Brodie |
Television[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Flashpoint | Kevin | 1 episode |
Nikita | Safwani's Bodyguard #4 | 1 episode | |
2011 | InSecurity | Shinka | 1 episode |
2012 | Call Me Fitz | Joe | 1 episode |
2013 | Murdoch Mysteries | Al | 1 episode |
2013–2014 | Rookie Blue | Shay Bishop | 2 episodes |
2015 | Hemlock Grove | Marshall | 2 episodes |
Quantico | Kamran Tahan | 1 episode | |
2017 | 21 Thunder | Junior Lolo | Lead role; 8 episodes |
2017–2018 | Frankie Drake Mysteries | Moses | 3 episodes |
2018 | Taken | Domingo | 1 episode |
2019 | V-Wars | Jack Fields | 2 episodes |
Ransom | Tyler LeFebure | 2 episodes | |
2020 | Star Trek: Discovery | V’Kir | 1 episode |
Web series[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Black Actress | Jessie | Guest role; 1 episode |
2014–2017 | Teenagers | T | Lead role; 22 episodes |
2018 | Evolve: Year Zero | Blue | Lead role; 8 episodes |
Darken: Before the Dark | Artemis | 4 episodes | |
Kristal Clear | Benjamin | 5 episodes |
References[]
- ^ "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominations: 49 Projects from 63 CFC Alumni". cfccreates.com. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Kabongo: Fired up by Nollywood spirit". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
- ^ a b c d e "Setting the Tone with Actor and Entrepreneur Emmanuel Kabongo | Harry Rosen". www.harryrosen.com. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
- ^ a b "The many faces of Emmanuel Kabongo". Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ Barnard, Linda (2014-06-05). "Toronto filmmaker Ingrid Veninger ups her game with The Animal Project, a heartfelt look at relationships". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ "Destination Femme Sits Down With Emmanuel Kabongo". Destination Femme. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ "Emmanuel Kabongo". cfccreates.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
- ^ "Academy to recognize TV with Golden Screen Awards". PlayBack, February 4, 2015.
- ^ a b Chunovic, Louis (January 15, 2014). "New web series Teenagers attracts Degrassi alum". Playback. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
- ^ "'teenagers' Enters its Final Season All Grown Up: an interview with creator M. H. Murray". Stareable Filmmaker Community. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
- ^ "Sex, drugs & violence: Toronto's provocative Web Series "Teenagers" returns for Season Two". Shedoesthecity. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ "Sex, drugs & violence: Toronto's provocative Web Series "Teenagers" returns for Season Two". www.shedoesthecity. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
- ^ "Teenagers - The Canadian Skins - The Daily Spectacle". www.dailyspectacle.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
- ^ "black elephant productions". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-11-09.
- ^ Garcia, Norma. "A Man's Story - bravoFACT – Drama Short Films | Watch Drama, Documentary Movies Online". Archived from the original on 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
- ^ "Reelworld Film Festival". Reelworld Film Festival. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
- ^ Barnes, Brooks (2016-01-26). "'Antibirth,' Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny's Sundance Reunion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
- ^ 26, Regan Reid September; 2016. "CBC commissions one-hour soccer drama". Retrieved 2016-10-27.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- ^ Reid, Regan (May 24, 2017). "Upfronts '17: CBC gets dramatic". Playback. Brunico Communications. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
- ^ "John Doyle: 21 Thunder is a fine drama containing soccer, sex and action". The Globe and Mail. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
- ^ "CBC's Frankie Drake Mysteries solves crimes in a post-Murdoch Mysteries Toronto".
- ^ "Brown Girl Begins rethinks Black History". BeatRoute, February 10, 2018.
- ^ November 2020, Scott Snowden 27. "'Star Trek Discovery' season 3, episode 7 recap: The series' strong start feels like a different show entirely". Space.com. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
- ^ Ben Leeson, "Québexit, an ensemble comedy at intersection of language and culture, to premiere at Cinefest". Sudbury Star, September 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "How his mother's love for '90s action films inspired Emmanuel Kabongo's own acting career". CBC Arts. August 28, 2017.
- ^ "Hartvibez Media (Radio): Society Today's Show: Is there systemic racism in Canada? on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
- ^ "LA Web Fest 2014 - Winning shows".
- ^ "7 reasons you should care about the Canadian Screen Awards this year". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
- ^ "Home". International Academy of Web Television. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
External links[]
- Living people
- 21st-century Canadian male actors
- Canadian male film actors
- Canadian male television actors
- Canadian male web series actors
- Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to Canada
- 1986 births
- Canadian Film Centre alumni