Stars are born not made. With a soul made up of dedication, ambition and drive. 13 year-old, singer, actor, and natural born performer Jacob Latimore is proving whatever he sets his mind to do he will succeed.
Growing up around music, singing is in his genes. The young singer’s father and uncles make up the inspirational quartet, The Latimore Brothers. At age five, the talented Milwaukee native discovered the movie, The Temptations; watching it everyday, perfecting and emulating the songs he heard and the dance moves he saw. After watching in amazement the first performance of boy band group B2K, he taught himself their choreography by studying videotape his mom brought him. Jacob had developed a serious discipline for the craft of dance.
In 2005, at 9-years old, Jacob had made up in his mind that he wanted to pursue a career in music. With the support and help from his parents, he teamed up with local Milwaukee producers, who produced his first song, “Best Friend”. Several local DJ’s and radio stations caught wind of the song, and founder of the Core DJ’s, Tony Neal stamped him as, “the next kid star!” Jacob’s buzz continued to build around the city as his mom booked him shows at local events and festivals, and schools. However, his career really took flight when Radio Disney picked up his song Best Friend. Jacob was then featured on the station’s Incubator program, which profiles promising young artists around the country. Through Incubator, Jacob booked shows with other Radio Disney favorites such as B5, to booking his first ever-national television performance on the Maury Povich Show, after producers saw a video of him on his MySpace page. (www.myspace.com/jacoblatimore )
In 2007, Jacob’s parents and management agreed that in order to take Jacobs career to the next level, it would be ideal to move him to Atlanta. Jacobs team immediately set up a showcase to introduce him to Atlanta music and media executives and tastemakers. Word spread that Jacob was the kid to see, the showcase attracted Grammy producer Rodney Jerkins to R&B singer Lloyd. Jacob continued to make even more noise as his single, “Superstar”, produced by the Corna Boys (Omarion, Marques Houston) and Rico Love (Beyonce, Ciara, Pleasure P, Mario) charted on the Billboard R&B and Hip Hop Sales Charts with little to no promotion.
Despite the insecurities of some record label executives, the multi-talented teen proves that age is nothing but a number. “I love performing, this is what I do. Im not forced to do this. I do it because I love it.” The natural born performer has been pounding the pavement leaving crowds in awe, even impressing his idols, Usher and Mario. “Before I get on stage, my adrenaline is always pumping hard, the screams from the crowd get me excited!”
Jacobs natural talent as an actor makes up his triple threat status. After being discovered by talent agent Joy Pervis (Dakota Fanning, Lucas Till) in 2008, Jacob booked several commercials, voice-overs, episodic, and his first lead role in the feature film, “Vanishing on 7th Street, which is slated for release in August 2010. Jacob feels like this is what he was born to do, “I give all credit to God, he gave me this gift, and I am so excited to see what other doors he is going to open for me!”
