Jimmy Jean-Louis

Jimmy Jean-Louis was born in Pétion-Ville, near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He lived there until the age of twelve, when he moved to Paris with his family to pursue a modeling career. After moving he experienced a culture shock because of the rural to city lifestyle change. He enrolled in business courses, but quickly realized that his heart lay in performance, and studied at the Académie Internationale de la Danse. His parents returned to Haiti, but Jean-Louis and his brother remained in Paris. Around a decade later in 1991, producers discovered Jean-Louis during one of his dancing stints in a French club. They tapped him to appear in a Coca-Cola advertisement, the success of which prompted Jean-Louis to spend several years modeling across Europe. In London he worked for brands including Gianfranco Ferré and Valentino. Before finding success as a model, he was homeless at times in Paris. By the mid-'90s, he had appeared in music videos for Ophelie Winter, En Vogue, Mariah Carey, Seal, and George Michael. He also began appearing in low-budget independent films in Los Angeles. He worked in musical theatre in Barcelona, Spain, spending three years with musical theater "La Belle Epoque", before moving to Italy where he worked as a model. He had secondary roles in Tears of the Sun, Hollywood Homicide, Monster-in-Law and The Game of Their Lives. He was cast as the romantic lead in the 2006 film Phat Girlz starring opposite Mo'Nique as her love interest. He was cast in the recurring role of The Haitian on the NBC television series Heroes, playing a character who is an associate of Noah Bennet. In an interview on The Post Show on G4, Jean-Louis stated that the Haitian was originally supposed to be from New Zealand, and that the character was going to be named "The Kiwi". He stated that he auditioned three times for the role of D.L. Hawkins, a part which he did not get.

In 2013, it was announced that Jean-Louis had been cast in a recurring role in Arrow. He portrayed "The Captain", an associate of Professor Ivo. In 2015, he took on a supporting role in the British film, The Cursed Ones. He had a recurring role on season one of Claws but was upgraded to a starring role in season 2.

In 2018, he was a jury member at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and Angouleme Film Festival. In 2019 he both produced and starred in 'Rattlesnakes', based on the stage play by Graham Farrow.

In 2024, He co-produced and acted in The Goat Life, an Indian-Malayalam language movie. he played the role of a Somalian man named Ibrahim Kadhar who knowledge of escape routes.