Emmanuel Kabongo

Emmanuel Kabongo (born December 25, 1986) is a Canadian actor and producer. Born and raised in Zaire (now known as 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]

Emmanuel Kabongo
Kabongo in 2020
Born (1986-12-25) December 25, 1986
Democratic Republic of the Congo
EducationCanadian Film Centre
OccupationActor, producer
Years active2009–present

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 also played a gladiator in Paul W. S. Anderson's Pompeii (2014).

Early life

Kabongo was born and raised in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and relocated with his family to South Africa during the war. In 1998, Kabongo immigrated to Toronto with his family.[2]

Career

Kabongo began acting in 2009, appearing in an amateur short film. He subsequently worked as an extra on the television series Nikita and Flashpoint. 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.[3]

Kabongo in 2016

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).[4][2] He completed an actor's residency at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre in 2015.[5]

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.[6]

Alongside filmmaker M. H. Murray, Kabongo co-produced the first season of the web series Teenagers.[7] 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.[8] 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".[7] Kabongo also starred as the lead male protagonist in the series.[9] Teenagers received positive reviews from critics and was frequently compared to the Degrassi franchise and the UK television series Skins.[10][11] The series amassed more than 10 million combined views on YouTube over the course of three seasons, from 2014 to 2017.[12]

Kabongo at a Canadian Film Centre event in 2017

In 2016, Kabongo produced and starred in A Man's Story, a short film for which he received funding from bravoFACT.[13] The short film premiered at the ReelWorld Film Festival.[14] 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.[15]

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.[16][17] The series premiered in Canada on July 31, 2017, to generally positive reviews.[18] Also that year, Kabongo appeared in three episodes of the CBC series Frankie Drake Mysteries as a boxer named Moses,[19] and he starred opposite Mouna Traoré in Brown Girl Begins, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Sharon Lewis.[20]

In 2020, he starred in an episode of the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery as V’Kir.[21]

Accolades

In 2013, Kabongo won the award for Best African Actor at the African Entertainment Awards, in Toronto.[22] In 2014, at the Los Angeles Web Series Festival, he shared the award for Outstanding Drama Series with M. H. Murray and Sara Tamosauskas, as producers of Teenagers.[23] In 2016, for his performance in the second season of Teenagers, Kabongo received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Performance in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media.[24] In 2017, he was nominated for an IAWTV Award for his performance in the third season of Teenagers.[25]

Year Association Category Nominated work Result
2013 African Entertainment Awards Best African Actor Self Won
2014 Los Angeles Web Series Festival[26] Outstanding Drama Series Teenagers
2016 Canadian Screen Awards[27] Best Performance in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media Nominated
2017 International Academy of Web Television[25] 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
  1. "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominations: 49 Projects from 63 CFC Alumni". cfccreates.com. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  2. "The many faces of Emmanuel Kabongo". Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  3. 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.
  4. "Destination Femme Sits Down With Emmanuel Kabongo". Destination Femme. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  5. "Emmanuel Kabongo". cfccreates.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  6. "Academy to recognize TV with Golden Screen Awards". PlayBack, February 4, 2015.
  7. Chunovic, Louis (January 15, 2014). "New web series Teenagers attracts Degrassi alum". Playback. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  8. "'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.
  9. "Sex, drugs & violence: Toronto's provocative Web Series "Teenagers" returns for Season Two". Shedoesthecity. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  10. "Sex, drugs & violence: Toronto's provocative Web Series "Teenagers" returns for Season Two". www.shedoesthecity. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  11. "Teenagers - The Canadian Skins - The Daily Spectacle". www.dailyspectacle.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  12. "black elephant productions". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-11-09.
  13. 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.
  14. "Reelworld Film Festival". Reelworld Film Festival. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  15. 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.
  16. 26, Regan Reid September; 2016. "CBC commissions one-hour soccer drama". Retrieved 2016-10-27.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. Reid, Regan (May 24, 2017). "Upfronts '17: CBC gets dramatic". Playback. Brunico Communications. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  18. "John Doyle: 21 Thunder is a fine drama containing soccer, sex and action". The Globe and Mail. 2017-07-27. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  19. "CBC's Frankie Drake Mysteries solves crimes in a post-Murdoch Mysteries Toronto".
  20. "Brown Girl Begins rethinks Black History". BeatRoute, February 10, 2018.
  21. 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.
  22. "The many faces of Emmanuel Kabongo – Centennial Journalism". Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  23. "RomaWebFest.it". www.romawebfest.it. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  24. "7 reasons you should care about the Canadian Screen Awards this year". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  25. "Home". International Academy of Web Television. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  26. "LA Web Fest 2014 - Winning shows".
  27. Canada, eBOSS. "Interview w Canadian Screen Awards 2016 nominee Emmanuel Kabongo". ebosscanada.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
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