Devery Jacobs

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Award-Winning Indigenous Actress & Filmmaker, Reservation Dogs and Marvel's Echo  

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Devery Jacobs: Biography at a Glance

  • Devery Jacobs is an award-winning Indigenous actor and filmmaker born and raised in Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory.
  • She is best known as the lead of Taika Waititi & FX's breakout hit show Reservation Dogs and Marvel series Echo for Disney+ as co-lead opposite Alaqua Cox.
  • Jacobs’ producorial debut came in the narrative film Backspot, a drama about competitive cheerleading in which Jacobs also stars.
  • Devery was working at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and studying to become a social worker at John Abbott College when she landed her first big on-screen role with her Canadian Screen Award-nominated performance in Rhymes for Young Ghouls.
  • Combining her experiences at the shelter and her passion for Indigenous rights, Devery wrote her debut feature film, Stolen, which explores how the system plays a part in the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
  • As a socially conscious voice from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, she uses her platform to advocate for Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ rights.
  • Devery is dedicated to telling stories of her culture through film and using her platform to uplift Indigenous voices, keeping the fight for Indigenous and queer representation at the forefront of everything she does.

Biography

Devery Jacobs is an award-winning actress, writer, director, producer, and one of Hollywood’s most exciting rising stars. As a socially conscious voice from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, she uses her platform to advocate for Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ rights. Jacobs will next star in the highly anticipated Marvel series Echo, which is set to launch on Disney+ on January 10, 2024. 

Jacobs currently stars as one of the leads in the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed series Reservation Dogs, which follows a group of four Indigenous teens who live on an Oklahoma reservation. For her performance as “Elora Danan” in the FX/Hulu series, Jacobs earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for “Best Actress in a Comedy Series” and a Gotham Award nomination for “Outstanding Performance in a New Series.” In 2022, Jacobs and the Reservation Dogs cast won an Independent Spirit Award in the category of “Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.” Jacobs, who’s also a writer on Reservation Dogs, directed the seventh episode of season three.

Most recently, Jacobs’ producorial debut narrative film Backspot, which is also executive produced by Elliot Page and directed by D.W. Waterson, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023. Backspot is a drama about competitive cheerleading that stars Jacobs as “Riley” and showcases her skills as a former provincial champion gymnast. The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as a “sensitive and stylish coming-of-age journey” and applauded Jacobs’ performance as “magnetic.” 

Jacobs has amassed a significant body of work in several film and television productions with a wide reach in genres including Netflix's original horror drama series The Order, Amazon/Starz fantasy drama series American Gods, and Blumhouse Productions’ The Lie. Her first breakout role came when she was cast as the lead role in the award-winning feature film, Rhymes For Young Ghouls. This role resulted in her nomination for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards. 

In 2022, Jacobs landed on the cover of Teen Vogue’s New Hollywood issue, and in 2021, she was placed on the Out100 list. In 2017, the Hollywood Reporter named Jacobs as one of Canada’s Rising Stars, which featured a list of breakout actors who are making an impact in Hollywood. In the same year, she was also honored by Telefilm Canada at the 2017 Birks Diamond Tribute, celebrating women in film. Jacobs was given the title of TIFF Rising Star at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. 

Jacobs has also explored the other side of the camera, with her directorial debut of the short film Stolen, which won “Best Aboriginal Film” at the 2017 Yorkton Film Festival. Her second short film Rae garnered “Best Youth Work” prize at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival. It was also an official selection of the 2018 Palm Springs Short Fest and was named as one of the “Best Female-Directed Films” by Refinery29. The feature film This Place, co-written by Jacobs, was named a recipient of the Talent to Watch fund from Telefilm Canada. While pursuing her acting career, Jacobs studied to be a counselor and worked at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. 

Outside of acting and filmmaking, Jacobs is fulfilling her goal of learning her Native language and taking Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) classes. Jacobs’ other passion lies in Indigenous rights and LGBTQ2S+ activism. She was an original founder of the Kahnawà:ke Youth Forum where she led and organized protests and rallies. Recently, Jacobs has been focusing her activism through her art, hoping to create change within communities and to alter the perspective of how modern Indigenous people are seen. 

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