Jaafar Jackson is the young man who played his uncle Michael in the movie “Michael,” which made more than $1 billion around the world. But long before Hollywood came calling, he had to get through a tryout at home.
And the judge was his own dad.
Jaafar, who was born on July 25, 1996, is the son of Jermaine Jackson. Jermaine is Michael’s older brother, and he sang alongside Michael in the Jackson 5. So music runs deep in that house.
Jaafar’s first love wasn’t music, though. Jermaine put a golf club in his hands when he was just three years old, and golf was his first passion.
That started to change when Jaafar was about 13.
In a 2026 interview with GQ Middle East, Jaafar remembered the day his dad gave him and his little brother an assignment. “He gave me and my younger brother two weeks to learn a Jackson Five song called ‘Touch’, and he was like, ‘I want you guys to perform it for me.’ He was in a Joseph mentality.”
That last line is a playful nod to Jaafar’s grandfather, Joe Jackson, the man who rehearsed the Jackson 5 when they were boys. For two weeks, Jermaine was running things the way his own dad once did.
There’s some sweet old footage of Jermaine working with his boys on their singing around that time, and it’s worth a look to see Jaafar as a kid, long before anyone knew he’d one day play Michael.
Jermaine gives his sons a singing lesson in 2010
Now, you’d think the boy who grew up to play Michael would have grabbed Michael’s part. He didn’t.
“So I was doing my dad’s parts and my younger brother was doing Michael’s parts,” Jaafar told GQ. The reason was simple. “Because he had a higher register.”
So the future star of “Michael” sang Jermaine’s lines, and his little brother took the high notes that young Michael once sang.
Then came the big day. Jaafar had to stand up and perform for his dad. He didn’t pretend it was easy.
“I’m very nervous, I’m just all in my head, but I do it, and he actually says, ‘I see a lot of potential. I want to start bringing you guys to the studio and having you learn what it is to create a song and record it.'”
Jermaine kept his word. He started taking the boys into the studio to learn how songs get made, and Jaafar was hooked. GQ says he became “a full-on studio rat.”
Golf took a back seat. Music took over.
In 2019, Jaafar put out his first single, “Got Me Singing.” A few years after that, he stepped into his uncle’s shoes on the big screen. The road there started with a homework assignment from his dad.
Jermaine was right there beside his son when “Michael” had its premiere, and it’s fun to see the two of them together all these years after that first little tryout at home.
Jaafar and his dad Jermaine at the “Michael” premiere
Jaafar went on to play Michael in front of the whole world. At home, though, his first big performance was as his dad.