Jadah Marie Johnson (born June 2 2005) is an American actress. She portrays Flynn in the Netflix series Julie and the Phantoms.
Biography
Jadah Marie was born in Fontana, California. She is the youngest of 9 siblings. Marie's passion for acting entertaining began early on, competing in cheer and gymnastic competitions at 4 years old—winning three national titles in cheer as a flyer. She has identical twin brothers named Amir and Amari O'Neil who are actors as well.
Marie was inspired to take up acting because of the acting work done by her father, Christian Redd, who had worked on the "Jesus Walks" video by Kanye West and had worked with Snoop Dogg.[1]
Early Career
She had a minor role in the 2018 blockbuster Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. Breaking through as a cast member of the series Mann and Wife in the role of Natasha 'Tasha' Mann, Marie portrayed Celia Facilier, one of the daughters of Dr. Facilier (aka The Shadow Man from The Princess and the Frog), in the film Descendants 3.[1]
Julie and the Phantoms
Marie first heard about Julie and the Phantoms from director Kenny Ortega, who came up to her at the Descendants 3 screening and told her about the show.[2] Working on Julie and the Phantoms is the second time Marie has worked with Kenny Ortega, having been directed by him in the third movie of the Descendants series.
Marie auditioned for the role of Flynn. She first met Madison Reyes at their first chemistry reading. Flynn had performed an Angelica Schyler song from the Broadway musical, Hamilton.
The first scene Marie filmed was the first-ever scene in the show with Carrie [Savannah Lee May], Julie [Madison Reyes] and Nick [Sacha Carlson].[2]
Music
Marie has an incredible talent for singing and rapping. She sang on the song “Audrey’s Christmas Rewind” with Sarah Jeffery, as well as “Break This Down,” “Good To Be Bad” and “Rotten to the Core (D3 Remix)” from the soundtrack of Descendants 3.[3]
Ever since Descendants, Marie has been working to release her Debut EP “One Tribe.”[4] Marie released two of original songs, "Staycation" and "Lifestyle." She also released "The Chase."
On her first single, Marie has stated:
"[Staycation] is a song that is all about having fun and living your best life with no worries. We all need a staycation in our lives here and there. Especially with this pandemic, the song is a representation of what we have been doing these past 8 months, which is staycationing."[5]
Recently, her and co-star and friend Madison Reyes released a new single titled “Main Thing”, which was an instant hit.
Gallery
Trivia
- Jadah is best known for playing Celia Facilier in Descendants 3 (2019).
