Vancouver, B.C.
Manny Jacinto to appear in Star Wars movie franchise, Zenia Marshall stars in One of Us is Lying Season 2
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
TWO Canadian actors of Filipino descent are in for exciting times as they are cast in separate TV series.
Manuel Luis Jacinto, a Canadian actor born in Manila, Philippines, will be in The Acolyte, which is based on the Star Wars movie franchise.
Jacinto will join Squid Game actor Lee Jung-Jae and Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg.
“Production has begun on The Acolyte, an upcoming Original series from Star Wars coming to #DisneyPlus,” the online streaming platform announced on social media.
This, as Zenia Marshall, a Vancouver-born actress, will continue to star in Season 2 of Peacock TV’s One of Us is Lying, which is based on a mystery murder teen book, which sold 200,000 copies when it was released in 2017.
All episodes are available now in the US and you will see Marshall as the character, Keely Moore.
Zenia is the daughter of Filipina artist, Luisa Marshall of the award-winning and internationally-acclaimed Tina Turner Tribute act.
Most known for her leading recurring role in TV series “Date My Dad” as “Mirabel Cooper” with “7th Heaven’s” Barry Watson and the legendary Raquel Welch, she has also made an appearance in the CW TV series “SuperGirl”, guest starred on SYFY’s “Van Helsing”, and has recurred as a guest star on “Supernatural” to name a few, according to her bio.
Jacinto, for his part, did several small roles on television before his breakout role as Jason Mendoza on the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2016-2020).
He has appeared as Waring ‘Wade’ Espiritu in the Neo-noir thriller film Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) and as Fritz in the action drama film Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
He is of Chinese-Filipino descent and graduated with a Bachelor Science in Civil Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia.
According to the official Star Wars website, The Acolyte “is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.”
Also part of the upcoming Disney+ show are Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), Dean-Charles Chapman (1917), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix).
The cast is currently filming in the UK however, the series does not have an exact release date yet.