Manny Jacinto plays Lindsay Lohan’s love interest in Freakier Friday but his heart belongs to another in real life.
Jacinto has been in a long-term relationship with Descendants star Dianne Doan. The couple met through a hip-hop training program in Vancouver before their acting careers took off. In 2019, Jacinto proposed, and the following year, they adopted a dog named Henri.
As Jacinto and Doan have found professional success over the years, the pair have been by each other’s sides, cheering each other on.
“Proud is an understatement
. We had such a great time celebrating the premiere of Freakier Friday,” Doan wrote via Instagram in August 2025 alongside multiple snaps of her and Jacinto from the Freakier Friday premiere. “Having my sister by my side and meeting CMM made our night!”
Keep scrolling for five things to know about Jacinto:
What Has Manny Jacinto Starred In?
Jacinto’s first acting gig was on Once Upon a Time but his role as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place put him in the spotlight.
“This breakout role gave me everything that I could’ve asked for. I’m from Vancouver, Canada, so when I auditioned for The Good Place,” he said in a May 2020 interview with Backstage. “They really liked what I did and they took care of the SAG card. I was already working on my visa at the time, but it was really a push to work in the States.”
In addition to The Good Place, Jacinto has starred on the TV series Brand New Cherry Flavor, Nine Perfect Strangers and Star Wars’ The Acolyte. He also had small roles in the films Bad Times at the El Royale and Top Gun: Maverick.
Jacinto also dabbled in voice acting as he’s appeared in the Disney series Hailey’s on It, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind and more.
Manny Jacinto Was Supposed to Have a Bigger Role in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
Jacinto played LT Billy “Fritz” Avalone in the 2022 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise. Fans were disappointed when the film came out, as they noticed Jacinto only appeared in background scenes. Years after having his scenes cut, Jacinto expressed his gratitude for the support of the fans.
“It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me,” he told GQ magazine in July 2024 “There was this sense of where the film was going [on set], like I can see them focusing the camera more on these [other] guys and not taking so much time on our scenes.”
While Jacinto had a “great experience” on the action film sequel, he shared that getting his scenes cut motivated him for future projects.
“At the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise,” he explained. “It’s up to us — Asian Americans, people of color — to be that [for ourselves]. We can’t wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves.”
How ‘The Good Place’ Inspired Manny Jacinto’s Proposal to Dianne Doan
Jacinto revealed that one of the story lines from The Good Place made him realize he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Doan.
“I was toying when to pop the question for a long time,” he explained to Vulture in 2018. “I looked at the Janet/Jason relationship, and there’s a sentence that Jason says to Chidi about relationships and it hit me pretty hard. I thought it was a sign that I needed to do it, and a week later I popped the question.”
When he was ready to propose, Jacinto decided to take Doan down a trip to memory lane.
“I took her to places that really meant a lot to us,” he continued. “Where I first met her, where I first saw her, where we had our first date, and where we had our first dance class. I had these canvas things written down with a message saying why the places were important to us. At every location I had her close her eyes, I’d hold up the canvas, and she would open her eyes. I took her through five different places, and at the last place I had our families waiting and I proposed.”
Manny Jacinto’s ‘Freakier Friday’ British Accent Isn’t Real
While Jacinto has a British accent in the 2025 comedy, he doesn’t call England home. The actor was born in the Philippines and his family emigrated to Canada when he was three.
“I apologize to all of the U.K. readers,” Jacinto joked of his accent in an August 2025 interview with In Style.
Yes, Manny Jacinto Knows About the TikTok Edits of Him
Fan videos of Jacinto have popped up on social media over the years, but there were a slew of posts following his role as Qimir in The Acolyte. While Jacinto is not active on the platform, his loved ones have shared clips with him.
“Luckily, I’m not on TikTok,” he said in an interview with Vogue Philippines. “But yeah, it has been weird. I have gotten those comments from friends or family where they’re like, ‘You’re popping up everywhere on my Explore page.’”
