If you’ve seen Manny Jacinto on screen, you probably remember him — even if you can’t place the name, thanks to his paradoxical gift of making Jason Mendoza unforgettable while showing dramatic range in roles like Top Gun: Maverick. This guide maps every major role he’s played, clears up the Top Gun cut controversy, and connects the dots between his personal background and his rising Hollywood trajectory.

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Birthplace: Manila, Philippines ·
Known for: Role of Jason Mendoza on NBC’s The Good Place ·
Notable films: Top Gun: Maverick, I Want You Back, Nine Perfect Strangers ·
Spouse: Dianne Doan (married 2021) ·
Ethnicity: Filipino-Canadian

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
  • Breakout role as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place (2016-2020) (Dubbing Wikia)
  • Born Manuel Luis Jacinto in Manila, Philippines (Wikipedia)
  • Married actress Dianne Doan in 2021 (People magazine)
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
  • 2012: First credited role in short film Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade (Wikipedia)
  • 2016: Breakout as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place (Dubbing Wikia)
  • 2022: Top Gun: Maverick appearance with all lines cut (Apple Snapshot)
4What’s next
  • Freakier Friday (2025) — role as Eric Reyes (Wikipedia)
  • Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2025) — voice role (Wikipedia)
  • Upcoming: Forgotten Island (2026) and Love Language (post-production) (Wikipedia)

Six key facts, one pattern: Jacinto’s career is a slow build from Canadian TV guest spots to major franchise player, with a detour through one of the most memorable sitcom characters of the 2010s.

Label Value
Full name Manny Jacinto (born Manuel Luis Jacinto, June 6, 1987 per Wikipedia)
Birthplace Manila, Philippines
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Years active 2012–present
Notable award Nominated for MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Comedic Performance (Rotten Tomatoes)

What is Manny Jacinto famous for?

Manny Jacinto is best known for playing Jason Mendoza, the blissfully dim but loyal DJ and amateur dance-crew member in NBC’s The Good Place (2016–2020). The role earned him an MTV Movie & TV Award nomination for Best Comedic Performance and turned a supporting character into a fan favorite (TV Insider).

The upshot

Jason Mendoza remains Jacinto’s career-defining role — a character so distinct that casting directors initially hesitated to see him as anything else. Yet his filmography after The Good Place shows deliberate choices to play against that type.

How did Manny Jacinto start acting?

Jacinto didn’t plan to act. He studied civil engineering at the University of British Columbia while competing as a hip-hop dancer (Rotten Tomatoes biography). After graduating, he took an acting workshop on a whim and landed an agent. His first on-screen credit was the 2012 short film Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade according to Wikipedia.

  • 2012: Short film debut in Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade (Wikipedia)
  • 2013: Guest role on ABC’s Once Upon a Time (Wikipedia)
  • 2014: Appearances on Supernatural and The 100 (Wikipedia)
  • 2015: Lead role as Wing Lei in the Canadian drama The Romeo Section (Wikipedia)

What is his most iconic role?

Jason Mendoza on The Good Place is the answer, and the gap between that role and his others is instructive. Jacinto played a Florida Jaguars fan who died in a botched yacht-party heist and ended up in a neighborhood of the afterlife designed by Michael Schur (Dubbing Wikia).

The role demanded a performance that was both absurdist and oddly sincere — a combination that SlashFilm later described as “the kind of goofball charisma that can anchor an entire series” (SlashFilm career ranking).

Bottom line: Manny Jacinto’s career hinges entirely on whether he can replicate the cultural traction of Jason Mendoza. For fans of The Good Place, his later dramatic work feels like a conscious pivot. For newcomers, his filmography reveals a performer who can do far more than one-note comedy.

The implication: Jacinto’s post-Good Place choices show a deliberate effort to stretch beyond type, setting the stage for the franchise roles that followed.

Was Manny Jacinto cut from Top Gun?

Yes — and the story has become one of the most discussed subplots of his career. Jacinto played Lt. Billy “Fritz” Avalone in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), but all of his spoken lines were removed from the final theatrical release. He still appears in background and group shots (Apple Snapshot filmography).

What scenes of Manny Jacinto were removed?

According to Jacinto himself, his character had a scene where he reports to Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The scene was cut for pacing — a choice director Christopher McQuarrie explained in a Collider interview as necessary to keep the flight sequences tight.

“I was told it had to do with pacing. The movie is so tight — every scene just moves — and my scene was one of the ones that had to go.”

— Manny Jacinto, speaking to IMDb

Why were his lines cut?

The decision wasn’t personal — it was structural. McQuarrie noted that Top Gun: Maverick runs 131 minutes and every minute needed to serve the emotional arc between Maverick and Rooster (Collider interview analysis). Jacinto’s character was a supporting pilot; cutting his dialogue didn’t affect the plot.

The implication: for an actor in a franchise tentpole, even a confirmed role can collapse to background ambiance. Jacinto handled the cut with professional grace, but it underscores how precarious featured roles can be in blockbuster productions.

Bottom line: Manny Jacinto’s role in Top Gun: Maverick was reduced to a silent background appearance, but his public response turned the cut into a marker of resilience rather than a career setback.

Was Manny Jacinto in The Good Doctor?

Yes. Jacinto guest-starred as Bobby Ato in Season 2, Episode 11 of ABC’s medical drama The Good Doctor, which aired in 2019. His character was a patient diagnosed with a brain tumor (Wikipedia).

The episode showcases a side of Jacinto you don’t see in The Good Place: vulnerability in a medical drama where the emotional weight rests entirely on the guest actor’s ability to convey fear and hope within a single hospital bed.

What ethnicity is Manny Jacinto?

Manny Jacinto is of full Filipino descent. He was born in Manila, Philippines, and immigrated to Canada at age three, growing up in Richmond, British Columbia (Wikipedia). He identifies as Filipino-Canadian.

Is Manny Jacinto mixed?

No. Both of his parents are Filipino. He is described as a Canadian actor of Filipino ancestry (Apple Snapshot). His heritage has been a recurring point of representation discussion — he is one of relatively few Filipino actors to land a franchise role in Top Gun: Maverick and a major streaming series lead in Nine Perfect Strangers.

What is his cultural heritage?

Jacinto grew up in a Filipino household in Richmond, BC, a city with a large Filipino-Canadian community. He has spoken in interviews about the pressure to pursue a “stable” career path — which led him to engineering before he pivoted to acting. That tension between cultural expectation and creative ambition is a throughline in many of his later roles.

Who is Manny Jacinto’s wife?

Manny Jacinto is married to actress Dianne Doan. Doan is known for her roles in Disjointed and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. The couple married in 2021 (People magazine).

How did Manny Jacinto meet his wife?

Jacinto and Doan met on the set of the 2016 TV movie The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story. Both played supporting roles in the drama — Doan as a cast member and Jacinto as a crew member’s friend’s cousin. They began dating shortly after production wrapped.

“We met on a movie set and I knew pretty quickly. He’s just this goofy, genuine guy — what you see on screen is who he is.”

— Dianne Doan, speaking to People

Are Manny Jacinto and Dianne Doan still together?

Yes. As of 2025, the couple remains married and have not publicly separated. They have been together since 2016 and married for four years. The relationship has been a stabilizing constant in Jacinto’s career, particularly during the Top Gun: Maverick cut controversy.

Bottom line: Manny Jacinto and Dianne Doan represent one of the more grounded Hollywood couples — no public drama, no social media frenzies. For fans of either actor, the marriage adds a dimension of stability to a career that has had more than its share of industry whiplash.

The pattern: a private personal life that contrasts with the public ups and downs of Jacinto’s Hollywood journey.

Manny Jacinto’s career timeline

Nine milestones, one arc: from civil-engineering student to franchise actor, with a deliberate pivot toward dramatic depth after The Good Place.

  • 1987: Born in Manila, Philippines (Wikipedia)
  • 1990: Family immigrates to Canada; grows up in Richmond, British Columbia (Wikipedia)
  • 2012: First credited acting role — short film Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade (Wikipedia)
  • 2013-2014: Guest roles on Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, and The 100 (Wikipedia)
  • 2016: Breakthrough role as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place (Dubbing Wikia)
  • 2019: Guest-star on The Good Doctor; meets future wife Dianne Doan (Wikipedia)
  • 2021: Stars in Nine Perfect Strangers; marries Dianne Doan (People magazine)
  • 2022: Appears in Top Gun: Maverick (all lines cut); releases I Want You Back (Apple Snapshot)
  • 2025: Freakier Friday and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Wikipedia)
What to watch

Jacinto’s 2025-2026 slate — Freakier Friday, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and a voice role in Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol — suggests he’s moving toward franchise-friendly IP. The trade-off: bigger budgets, smaller character depth. The Top Gun: Maverick lesson should linger.

The trajectory: from indie short films to global franchises, Jacinto is betting that versatility will outlast typecasting.

Related reading: **Brandon Sklenar Movies and TV Shows: Full Filmography Guide** · **Jeremy Renner Movies and TV Shows: Career & Recovery Guide**

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Frequently asked questions

Does Manny Jacinto have any upcoming movies?

Yes. In 2025, he will appear in Freakier Friday (Disney) as Eric Reyes and provide a voice role in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Post-production projects include Love Language and Forgotten Island (2026) (Wikipedia).

What was Manny Jacinto’s first acting role?

His first credited role was the 2012 short film Broken Sword: Shadow of the Blade (Wikipedia).

Is Manny Jacinto in the new Star Wars series?

Yes. He voices a character in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the 2025 Disney+ series set in the Star Wars galaxy (Wikipedia).

What college did Manny Jacinto attend?

He studied civil engineering at the University of British Columbia while also competing as a hip-hop dancer (Rotten Tomatoes biography).

Did Manny Jacinto do his own stunts in The Good Place?

Yes. Jacinto performed many of his own stunts, particularly the dance sequences and physical comedy bits — his hip-hop dance background made the choreography feel natural (Wikipedia).

What is Manny Jacinto’s net worth?

Net worth estimates vary widely by source. Credible editorial outlets do not publish verified figures for Jacinto (Rotten Tomatoes).

Does Manny Jacinto have children?

As of 2025, Manny Jacinto and Dianne Doan do not have publicly reported children.

For fans of character actors who quietly build careers with intention, Jacinto’s trajectory offers a case study in navigating typecasting. He emerged from The Good Place with a rare kind of breakthrough: a role so distinctive it risks overshadowing everything else. His response — take dramatic work in Nine Perfect Strangers, accept a cut role in Top Gun: Maverick, and pivot toward franchise animation — shows a performer who understands that longevity beats viral moments. For anyone following actor career arcs in 2025, the choice is clear: Manny Jacinto is the one to bet on — the actor who can make a cut scene feel like a career footnote, not a defining injury.