Jencarlos Canela

Jencarlos Canela was an American telenovela star and singer who made his American TV debut on the NBC comedy "Telenovela" (NBC, 2015-16) in 2015. Born and raised in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Canela's career as an entertainer began when he started singing for the pop group Boom Boom Pop at 12-years-old. Canela sang with the group for two years, developing an ease and comfortable demeanor for performing in front of a live audience, before breaking off as a solo act in 2002. Over the next several years Canela performed at several international music events, all the while earning a degree in music and acting from the New World School of the Arts in 2006. In 2009, at the age of 21, he released his first solo album, Búscame, which quickly shot up to Number 1 on the Latin Pop charts. Canela's follow-up album, 2011's Un Nuevo Día, also hit Number 1. With his music career already on the rise, Canela started branching out into TV acting. He made his TV debut in 2007 on the Spanish telenovela "Pecados Ajenos" (Telemundo, 2007-08), and in 2009 signed an exclusive acting contract with the Spanish language network Telemundo to appear in several of their telenovelas. Canela continued appearing in Telemundo's telenovelas over the next few years, while also making his movie debut in the 2010 action film "Hunted by Night." Canela's third album, Jen, came out in 2014, and spawned the hit single "I Love It," thus proving the noted singer/actor was still at the top of his game professionally. Then in 2015 Canela received the biggest break of his career when he was asked to star alongside Eva Longoria on the NBC sitcom "Telenovela." The show debuted on NBC in 2015 with Canela starring as the jaded ex-husband of Longoria's character.