Snowfall’s Amin Joseph Talks Filming In South Central, John Singleton & Protecting Mo’Nique

Amin Joseph continues to make his mark in Hollywood. Known for his most recent role as Uncle Jerome on the hit crime drama series Snowfall, the actor and producer has been putting in work for years.

Born in Queens, New York and raised in Harlem, Joseph always knew he would be big. He graduated from Howard University, worked and interned at the famous Apollo Theater as he began his professional acting career in the early 2000s. Within the last two decades, he has appeared in numerous independent, feature, and guest roles on television series like BayWatch, The Expendables, The Gambler, Call Me King, and The Mist, among many others. Joseph has also launched his own production company, Dark Energy Pictures, where he focuses on action, horror, and Sci-fi content spanning digital, television, and feature films.

The actor recently joined Home Grown Radio’s Chuck Dizzle and DJ Hed to discuss his character Uncle Jerome on Snowfall, the impact the show has had, the advice John Singleton gave him, and why he will always protect actress and comedian Mo’Nique, among other topics. 

When asked about the impact that Snowfall has had since its debut, Amin Joseph reveals that John Singleton was the one who truly believed the show would resonate with the audience. 

“The late-great John Singleton was the battery for my back for this season,” he says. “John knew this because he knew this wasn’t just a microwaveable story. This was actually something that happened to the community in which he comes from. He’s putting a very close-tight lens on the humanity of the people, his culture, his community and the stories for lack of his and the other EP’s we’re working with; we would not see that humanity in a three dimensional way.”

Joseph also shares the advice John Singleton gave him while filming the pilot of the show. “These are the types of things that are going to be monumental in my life, he adds. “I’d be able to work with an iconic filmmaker and be able to bring his stuff that he’s been painting on his mental canvas. That I’d be able to do it with such vivid detail that it loses people into what we do.”

He explains why it was so important for him to play such a related character like Uncle Jerome. “For me it is about having the authenticity of things that are truly undisputed and really specific to LA [Los Angeles] because the truth is, we have that uncle in Chicago, we have that uncle in Indiana, we got him in Mississippi, in New York, we got him in Philly [you know what I mean]. What it also shows is that a lot of the stuff we’ve gone through as people in this country and in humanity is very similar. And that’s why people in other places can relate to it too but then there’s that specificity of what makes it unapologetically LA.”

Further more into the interview, Joseph tells us why he won’t ever hesitate to protect Mo’Nique. He admits that during the time that he was working at the famous Apollo Theater, Mo’Nique took it upon herself to help him kick start his acting career. “Baby, I hear that you’re an actor. You’re going to be a phenomenal actor. You’re blessed,” Joseph recalls the words Mo’Nique told him. He then shares how she introduced him to her agent at that time and told him “this young man is going to be in Hollywood one day and you need to rep[resent] him now. He’s a phenomenal talent.”

In the interview, Joseph also shares some dad advice with Chuck Dizzle, his top three actors and actresses, and much more. 

Check out our full interview with Amin Joseph and be sure to catch Snowfall airing on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.