Jonathan Roumie

Jonathan Roumie (Arabic: جوناثان رومي, born July 1, 1974) is an American actor known for his role as evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution and as Jesus in The Chosen, a crowd-funded television series about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. He is also a voice artist and a public speaker.
A first-generation American, Roumie's father was born in Egypt and is of Syro-Lebanese descent; his mother is from Ireland. Roumie has stated that his great-grandparents on his father's side were Armenian.
Before his parents moved to and later met in New York City, Roumie's mother was raised on a farm in Ireland with his father being raised in Cairo, Egypt. Though he was baptized in the Orthodox Church, Roumie converted to Catholicism after moving from New York to its suburbs. He holds a degree in film from the School of Visual Arts. In 2024, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts by the Catholic University of America for his work evangelizing through his acting career.
After graduating from college, Roumie played drums in his friend's contemporary rock band. The band had recorded an album and were due to go on tour but the recording company sponsoring the tour went bankrupt. Shortly after, Roumie moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.
Roumie started in the entertainment industry as production assistant and was the location scout for Spider-Man, National Treasure and I Am Legend. He also created music, and his first original song, "Outta Time", was released in Europe for the album Unbreakable, which he co-produced.
He began seeking acting work and made his first appearance as a voice actor for an MTV series. He did voiceover work for various video games (including (Evolve, Mafia II & III, The Darkness II and Fallout 4). He eventually began landing minor roles on television series, including The Good Wife, As the World Turns, and Castle, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time acting career.
Roumie met Dallas Jenkins, creator of The Chosen, in 2014 when Jenkins was the media director for a large church in Illinois and cast Roumie for the role of Jesus in a short film about the Two Thieves. He played the character of Christ for the first time in a touring multi-media project about the life of St. Faustina called Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy and subsequently in 'Once we were Slaves/The Two Thieves'. Roumie is also the co-producer, co-director and lead actor of The Last Days: The Passion and Death of Jesus, a live performance about the passion of Christ.
After eight years in Los Angeles, Roumie was struggling to sustain his acting career and relied on government assistance payments, which eventually ran out. He woke up one morning completely broke. He recalls that during the crisis, "I didn’t see any way out. So I literally said: 'God, you take this from me. It’s in your hands now. I’m not going to worry about it.' Then, three months later, The Chosen comes along. I thought, OK, I just needed to submit." Roumie played Jesus in the pilot episode for The Chosen in 2017 and would become the star of the full series.
Now known worldwide for portraying Jesus in the series, Roumie has been featured in numerous publications, including TV Guide, the National Catholic Register, America Magazine, and The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He has also been interviewed on network television for shows such as The View, Fox News, EWTN, and various religious-based news and information outlets.
Regarding the challenges of portraying Jesus, Roumie has said, "Very often, I don't feel worthy of playing Jesus. I struggle with that a lot. But I also acknowledge what God has done for my life as a result of playing Christ and how God has changed my life." A documentary miniseries titled Jonathan and Jesus depicted Roumie's personal story and the effect playing Jesus has had on his public image and personal life.
He portrayed charismatic hippie evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution.
He also serves as a narrator for the Catholic prayer app Hallow. Jonathan Roumie appeared in the Super Bowl 2024 commercial for the app, causing a huge spike in downloads of Hallow.
Roumie is also a public speaker. He was a keynote speaker at March For Life. He also was one of the revival session speakers at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress 2024 with over 55,000 participants in attendance.
At one time, Roumie was involved in an entertainment fellowship for Christian entertainment professionals.
Roumie has been a ministry leader and has served as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion within the Catholic Church. He is a strong advocate of the sacraments, ecumenism, humility, and charity. He serves on the board of Catholics in Media Associates. In 2020, he was nominated for a papal knighthood, the Order of St. Gregory the Great. He was also named one of Aleteia's "10 Catholics who restored our faith in humanity" in 2021 and made it onto Our Sunday Visitor's list of Catholics of the Year in 2022. He opposes abortion. A keynote speaker at the 2023 March for Life, Roumie told participants, "God is love, and true love gives way to life, not death."
As of 2022, Roumie was residing in Los Angeles.
Roumie can be found hosting live prayers on Instagram, some of which have been viewed nearly 100,000 times. He prays the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy.
Roumie is a talented illustrator, and won awards in high school for this work.