Jarrett emigrated with his family from Jamaica to Toronto, Ontario, Canada at age nine and has been in the acting business since the mid-1980s. He had originally planned to become a public school principal after completing his degree at University of Waterloo, during which time he played for the Warriors basketball team, but was later swayed by a local modeling scout to try out some modeling work. With some runway experience in Toronto, Jarrett hired an agent and tried out for some acting gigs after having acted in a campus play that was directed by Susan Forrest, a known casting agent in Toronto.