Jimmy Jean-Louis - Haiti Observer Blog

Actor and Philanthropist, Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis, born August 8, 1968 in Petition-Ville, has been enormously successful in his chosen career. His fate was sealed when his family moved to Paris in 1980. Although he began as a business major at university it wasn't long before he discovered his true vocation, performing for others.

He enrolled at the Academie International de Dance and became a professional dancer, performing in French nightclubs. After ten years of dancing locally and enduring a stretch of homelessness, he was finally discovered by producers, who hired him for a Coca-Cola commercial. Thus began his modeling career in which he achieved bookings with such famous designers as Gianfranco Ferré and Valentino.

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After forging a substantive career in entertainment encompassing fashion and the cinematic arts, Haitian-born actor, Jimmy Jean-Louis began his humanitarianism, having gained a formidable platform from which to do good works, and has now been awarded the Excellence in the Arts prize for his contributions to entertainment as well as humanity through the foundation he founded, Hollywood United for Haiti.

Upon receiving the prestigious award from the Caribbean American Heritage Awards, Jimmy Jean-Louis joined the ranks of those Caribbean notables who have taken home a prize from the foundation which awards those Caribbean artists who have made significant contributions as immigrants to the United States. Past recipients include Jamaican Reggae Artist, Freddie McGregor, who has had hits including, 'Big Ship' and 'Just don't want to be lonely', though McGregor's award was for Lifetime Achievement.

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Toussaint L'Ouverture, modern Haiti's liberator, joined the slave revolt on the island--known then as Saint Domingue--in 1788. A freed slave, who had acquired a fortune, he fought alongside Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's first president.

Produced by Raoul Peck, the "Toussaint L'Ouverture" film project languished for several years in Hollywood. It finally received the needed funding from Hollywood Unites for Haiti Foundation and was green-lighted. The two-part, three-hour film previewed at Cuba Cinemathique in April 2012. Prior to the screening, the French production was broadcast on French television, where it drew an audience of 3 million.

On the strength of positive reviews, the Embassy of the Republic of Haiti to Cuba and Traveling Caribbean Film submitted it to international film festivals. "Toussaint L'Ouverture" was nominated in several categories in Montréal, Monte Carlos, and Washington, winning The Black Reel Award for Outstanding Foreign Film. It won Best Actor and the Audience Award at the Pan American Film and Arts Festival, and a Best Actor award at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. It also captured Best Diaspora Feature at the Africa Movie Academy Awards.

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Jimmy Jean-Louis, birthdate of August 8, 1968, is a Haitian-actor-model, who found fame as "The Haitian" in Heroes, an NBC series. He lived in Pétionville, near Port-au-Prince, from infancy, until at 12 he immigrated with his family to Paris, to begin a modeling career.

There Jimmy Jean-Louis studied at Academie International de Dance. By 1991 producers discovered him dancing at a French club and hired him for a Coca-Cola print advertisement, which was highly successful. This opportunity raised his modeling profile and enabled him to work with haute couture fashion designers, Gianfranco Ferré and Valentino.

He had come a long way, from his homeless days in Paris to dancing in videos with the likes of Mariah Carey, Seal, and George Michael. He continued dancing and acting in musical theater, and getting exposure in an erotic French TV program.

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This is a sign that the Haitian community is moving and if I may say "Up" in the US. The latest is having one of our own elected as mayor in a major town. On behalf of the Haitian diaspora in the United States and all over the world, I would like to congratulate Noramie Festa Jasmin as the new Mayor of Spring Valley.

She has become the first Haitian American and the first woman to be elected as Mayor of Spring valley in 2009.

Before becoming Mayor of Spring Valley in New York, Noramie Jasmin occupied the position of trustee as well as deputy Mayor.

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