Emmanuel DeJesus was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the second youngest of seven children. His mother is Puerto Rican and his father is Dominican. He attended Methuen High School in Methuen, Massachusetts and has lived in Florida and Hawaii.He developed an interest in acting after attending an open casting call for the movie Battleship (2012) and later receiving a call back to go audition for a speaking role. Although he did not get the part, his experience in the audition room was a rush; subsequently empowering him to seek more projects and learn the craft of acting.Emmanuel has worked on several TV and Film productions, later to be casted on a feature film called Camino (2016) where he landed his first speaking role as Santiago. He would then be casted in the hit TV show Hawaii Five-0 (2010) as Police Officer David Atowa.