New York Born Jamaican Actor Emilio Evans Celebrates Jamaican Roots in ‘Makeup and Breakup’ New Season

Actor Emilio Evans, co-star of the TV series Makeup and Breakup (aka Makeup X Breakup) will return to the screen starting July 6 when the half hour drama premieres its second season on the popular streaming platform Allblk.tv (All Black TV).

Photo Credit – David Genik

Romantic TV Drama

Set in New York City, Makeup X Breakup is written and directed by series creator Eric Dickens, and follows the complicated romantic relationships of a group of young African American friends with their present and former lovers. The ensemble cast also features Nicolette Ellis, Omar Salmon, Kamel Goffin, Olivia Gray, Karmie Berry and Sean Dominic.

Evans As Bryce Grove

Evans, a Harlem based actor of Jamaican parentage, plays the role of Bryce Grove, a marketing  executive who, as Evans puts it, “Has gone through hardships in his life that have molded him into the man he has become. He can be pretty naïve and aloof in his approach to and relationships with women, and consequently things don’t always go well for him in his dating world.”

Emilio Evans on the set of Makeup X Breakup.

From YouTube to Allblk

Evans is proud of the years long journey the series has taken before arriving at its new home on Allblk, which is a subsidiary of parent company AMC Networks. Responding to an open casting call back in 2016, his audition lead to him becoming an original cast member when the show premiered later that year on YouTube as a series of 10 minute episodes. The huge popularity of the series lead to a pickup by BET for their online streaming platform for several years and then, ultimately, a new home at Allblk as of 2022.

“All of our past episodes are now available on Allblk.tv and presented as our official season one,” Evans explains, “So new viewers now have a chance to catch up on whatever they missed, before our season two premiere arrives on July 6.”

Season two he says will be interesting, because it is actually a ‘prequel’ to season one- meaning audiences will be re introduced to the show’s characters at a younger age, prior to how they were presented in the first season. “Audiences can expect to see some really great storytelling with people of color as the focus, and that’s very exciting for me, based on what my own plans are for the future.”

Evans’ Journey to the Big Screen

Ultimately, Evans- who decided to become an actor at age 7 to get over his shyness, and who later studied theatre at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) – intends to establish his own production company. He hopes to write, produce and appear in content that will create more opportunities for artists of color and bring his Jamaican roots fully to the fore.

“My mother is from Tivoli Gardens and my father is from Portland,” he says. “They immigrated here quite young, so I was born in New York and raised mostly in the deeply Jamaican part of the Bronx. But am still very close to my large family back in Jamaica – aunts, uncles and cousins. I’m very proud of my Jamaican heritage and would love to give Jamaicans another reason to be proud by telling some of our own stories. I’ve never cared for how we’ve been portrayed in the media. It’s usually some forced accent and mannerisms that I feel come off as inauthentic more than anything. We haven’t truly tapped the full potential of Jamaicans and Jamaican stories on TV or film in an interesting way just yet. I’m definitely hoping to change that, though.”

He also draws inspiration from the journey that Makeup X Breakup has taken- from 10 minute You Tube videos to full fledged, half hour drama on a mainstream platform available globally. “What it tells me is that the world is now a global village and there is hunger for a wide variety of content, which has lead to the creation of all these exciting new platforms. Now more than ever, I believe that if you have a great story to tell, there are definitely ways to get it done.”

In addition to Makeup X Breakup, Evans has also appeared on Power: Book Two and Law and Order: Organized Crime.  On stage he was last seen in  BREAKZ  at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is repped by STW Talent Agency and Stein Entertainment Group.

Makeup X Breakup season two will stream on Allblk.tv for eight weeks, with new episodes available every Thursday from July 6 through August 24.

Photo – Jermaine Blum, David Genik, Sharifah Williams

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