Jharrel Jerome, a 21 year old actor from The Bronx, gained his first professional nod playing Kevin, a bisexual teenager, in Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning film Moonlight, while studying as a freshman at New York’s Ithaca College.

However, his breakout role came a few years later when writer/director Ava DuVernay cast him in When They See Us, a dramatisation of the story of a group of teenagers, known as the Central Park Five, who were convicted of raping and assaulting a young woman in 1989. Jerome made a lasting impression on DuVernay in the audition process and was the only actor to play one of the five leading roles for the entirety of the four part Netflix series. Commenting on Jerome’s performance, now the subject of considerable Emmy buzz, DuVernay said ‘The care that he gave to the parts that were more quiet, the moments that another actor might have glossed over. He knew the little stuff is the big stuff.’