Playback’s 10 to Watch 2024: Emmanuel Kabongo

The Canadian-Congolese talent has made a name for himself as an actor, and is now expanding his reach as a producer.

Playback is proud to present the 2024 cohort for our annual 10 to Watch. This year’s group of Canadian screen industry talents were selected from more than 250 submissions. We are rolling out profiles on each individual this month.

Toronto-based actor Emmanuel Kabongo is plotting a course for himself as an independent producer.

After starring in and making his feature film producing debut with 2024’s Sway, the 37-year-old is ready to dive further into the world of producing.

“Acting is definitely my first love but, as I grow in my career, I realize sometimes it’s better for me to not try to do everything,” Kabongo tells Playback Daily.

Kabongo became involved in the film, which was initially titled Spiral, when his friend Charlie Hamilton, who wrote and co-directed the film alongside Zachary Ramelan, approached him with the script in 2023.

Kabongo says he had been itching to produce a feature and took the opportunity on the thriller about a Black community leader who has life unravel before him.

“I attached the lead actors and all the other actors on board, got some co-producers attached, found some money and we were able to shoot the film in six days,” says Kabongo.

Now he is developing multiple projects, including a sports series set in Toronto and a feature film about a love story disrupted by civil war set in his home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he plans to be his first time directing as well.

Kabongo, the eldest of six children, says he and his family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo for South Africa in 1993 due to civil war. Five years later Kabongo’s father, Mukendi Kabongo, who had been working in Toronto, was able to bring them over to Canada.

“I’m really thrilled [to shoot the film in the Democratic Republic of Congo] because, as someone who was born in Congo, I’ve never had the opportunity to work down there,” says Kabongo.

Kabongo says the goal that he and his siblings have through their careers is to purchase their mother, Nene Kabongo, a home.

“Before we left Congo, my mom was a homeowner. Since we’ve been here, she hasn’t had the opportunity to own her own home again,” says Kabongo. “It’s one of the reasons why I got into producing … [My siblings and I] have taken it upon ourselves to do what we can to give our mother that chance.”

Other projects Kabongo has produced include the short film Figaro, Figaro and he was an associate producer on the feature film Welcome and the short film Devilish Tongues.

Kabongo began pursuing an acting career after moving to Toronto. But with not knowing anyone in the industry or how to get major roles, Kabongo’s main focus became sports.

Kabongo played basketball at George Brown College from 2007 to 2008 and, in his second year, with acting still in the back of his mind, decided to sign up for the one-year theatre arts preparation program at the college.

“I finally got offered a basketball scholarship to go to a Canadian university, but while that was happening, I had also landed my first student film,” says Kabongo. “I had to make a decision, do I continue playing basketball or do I take on this opportunity to finally pursue an acting career?”

Choosing the latter, Kabongo began to book roles and later enrolled in the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory where he met Canadian lawyer, literary agent and executive producer Michael Levine.

“From the beginning of my career, I tried to mentor young people, not only actors, but producers, directors and writers,” says Levine. “Finding people with the qualities of Emmanuel, intelligence, charm, look, talent … has been very important.”

As Kabongo continued with acting he began scoring larger parts such as in Ingrid Veninger’s 2013 film The Animal Project. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.

Kabongo says Veninger’s example as a producer guided him in his first series producing role with Teenagers, which he also starred in. He was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (CSA) for his performance in the series, and received two later CSA nominations for his performances in the 2018 miniseries Chateau Laurier and the 2021 TV movie Death She Wrote.

“I was really inspired by [her] and her approach with how she brought The Animal Project together,” says Kabongo. “She didn’t need a big crew.”

M. H. Murray, who directed, produced and edited the self-financed web series which follows the lives of a group of teenagers and their problems, says Kabongo was essential to guiding them through the first season.

“I thought Emmanuel might be a good person to star as one of the main characters,” says Murray. “He read the script and he really liked it and he was looking to get involved beyond just acting. So, he came on board as a producer and he was really the catalyst to the series finding the cast that it did.”

Murray says Kabongo was a mentor for him as he was new to navigating the industry and was able to give valuable advice on where the series should be released and which festivals to attend.

Kabongo has independently financed all of his projects to date, outside of the traditional Canadian financing model.

“A lot of filmmakers in Canada don’t really push themselves to figure out how to make their films when they don’t get funding from the government,” says Kabongo. “It really doesn’t bother me and I hope to one day get funding from the government … But, at the same time, I don’t just want to do something to check boxes.”

Photo courtesy of Amanda Rosenthal Talent Agency