Jonathan Eusebio
Jonathan Eusebio is an American director, stunt coordinator and an actor. He is considered a prolific figure in Hollywood and the action film genre.
Personal life
Jonathan Raymond Eusebio also known as Jojo was born on September 15, 1973, and raised in Canada by his Filipino parents.Eusebio's interest in martial arts began at the age of eight and progressed through taekwondo, judo, wrestling, and kickboxing and enrolled in Dan Inosanto's Academy of Martial Arts school, and he never realized that martial arts would be his calling.
Eusebio's academic path led him to major in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. After graduating, he worked in a laboratory while maintaining his passion for martial arts. Eusebio began his professional collaboration with future filmmakers and 87eleven Action Design creators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch when he joined at the Inosanto Academy in Marina Del Rey, California, at the age of 18.
Career
The low-budget action movie True Vengeance from 1997 was his first foray into stunt acting. But when he contributed to the 2002 film Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, his fame was really taking off. In the same year, Eusebio contributed to the development of Jason Bourne's distinct fighting technique in The Bourne Identity, which was based on Filipino Kali and knife combat. This connection persisted throughout the Bourne film series, when he served as a fight coordinator and trained Matt Damon.Eusebio, a founding member of the 87eleven Action Design, has had a significant impact on the development of the Hollywood stunt collective. His co-fight choreography for Ninja Assassin in 2009 and his work on the ground-breaking movie 300 in 2006 demonstrated 87eleven's growing creative influence over the direction of the action scenes.
Eusebio's outstanding resume also includes work in Marvel movies, where he combined aikido, kali, Muay Thai, and "lucha libre" to create a distinctive combat style for the character Black Widow in Iron Man 2. His work on several Marvel movies, such as The Avengers, Doctor Strange, and the critically acclaimed Black Panther, was made possible by this role.
His contributions to the John Wick franchise serve as more evidence of his inventiveness. The John Wick franchise pays homage to Asian action films by combining judo and jiu jitsu, which required Keanu Reeves, the principal actor, to undergo intensive training. The franchise continues to push the edge in terms of creative fighting styles and stunt work. His participation in the industry increased further from 2017 when he began working as a second unit director on various 87eleven movies, including Deadpool 2, Birds of Prey, and Kate. In 2022, he took up the role of second unit director and stunt coordinator on the Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and in 2021, on the fourth Matrix film, The Matrix Resurrections.