BIOGRAPHY
Haitian born Jimmy Jean-Louis embodies the « rags to riches » story, growing up in the slums of Petion-Ville, Haiti, to becoming an international actor and Hollywood celebrity. His amazing story could have ended there, but while continuing to pursue his acting career, Jimmy shifted his focus to rebuilding his homeland, ravaged by the 7.0 earthquake on January 12th, 2010. In his early years, Jimmy worked as a dancer and model in France, Spain, Italy, South Africa and England. He moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. His credits include Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis, Hollywood Homicide with Harrison Ford, Monster in Law with Jane Fonda & Jennifer Lopez, Phat Girlz with Mo’Nique, the hit NBC Show Heroes and, more recently, Five Thirteen with Tom Sizemore. He will also be acting in upcoming films: The Promise Keeper by award-winning indie director Jerry Lamothe and Lives of the Saints starring Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Kat Dennings and Meg Ryan. Jimmy has had an international career since 2006, acting in films produced in France, England, Indonesia, USA, Nigeria, Ghana and Mexico.
JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS
His international appeal is due greatly to his fluency in 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian and Creole. His international credits include a starring role in A Butterfly Kiss with Italian star Valeria Golino, the French comedy, Coursier, by director Herve Renoh, Sinking Sand from the Ghanaian award winning director Leila Djansi and the Nigerian produced Doctor Bello. He will also be in “Misere” with Gerard Depardieu, and in the upcoming film,Yefon, by Kevin Natera’s, a “Nollywood” production (colloquial name of the Nigerian film industry; the second largest film industry in the world).
Jimmy recently portrayed Toussaint Louverture, the 18th century leader of the Haitian Revolution, in a film about and named after this extraordinary Haitian hero. The role has been his most important French language film to date and has won him the BEST ACTOR award at the Pan African Film Festival, the Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival & Vues d’Afrique and the International Film Festival in Canada. He was also nominated BEST ACTOR at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2012. Jimmy Jean-Louis is the founder and President of Hollywood Unites for Haiti, a non-profit organization (501c3) established in 2008 whose mission is to help the underprivileged youth of Haiti. In response to the 2010 disaster, and to provide immediate relief to the victims of the earthquake, HUFH joined forces with the Pan American Development
Foundation and the Organization of American States. HUFH-PADF-OAS and its partners provided support to more than 300,000 people and delivered in excess of 200 tons of supplies during the first 8 weeks of the disaster.
Mr. Jean-Louis has taken part in a series of campaigns for Haitian aid. He was an invited singer on the Quincy Jones project, « We Are The World, » to benefit humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. In January 2010 Jimmy was presented the key to Miami-Dade county during Haitian Independence Month. Named Pan American Development Foundation’s Ambassador for Haitian Children, he testified to congress on their behalf in June 2010.
Jimmy is now working on his very personal project Haiti 16:53; the incredible story and documentary film follows the adventures of one man’s journey of a lifetime under extraordinary circumstances.
