Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan | Reservation Dogs | FX on Hulu
Devery Jacobs
Elora Danan / Writer
"Elora Danan," portrayed by Devery Jacobs, continues to struggle with loss and grief as she explores new possibilities and ways of healing.
Career Highlights
Jacobs is quickly establishing herself as one of Hollywood’s most exciting rising stars and as a socially conscious voice from Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, using her platform to advocate for Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ rights.
Jacobs was recently cast in the latest Marvel series, Echo. For her portrayal of “Elora Danan” in Reservation Dogs, Jacobs earned a Gotham Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Performance in a New Series. Jacobs also serves as a writer for Season Two.
Jacobs can be seen starring in Caroline Monnet’s feature film, Bootlegger. The film was awarded Best Dramatic Feature Award at the 2021 imagineNATIVE Festival Awards and received Best Screenplay at Cannes’ Cinéfondation in 2017.
Up next is Jacobs’ producorial debut narrative feature film Backspot, which is currently in pre-production.
Jacobs has amassed a significant body of work in several film and television productions with a wide reach in genres including Netflix’s horror drama series The Order, Amazon/Starz fantasy drama series American Gods and Blumhouse Television’s The Lie. Her breakout role came when she was cast as the lead in the award-winning feature film, Rhymes for Young Ghouls. This role resulted in her nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards.
Additional Canadian film credits include Blood Quantum, Cold and This Life. Jacobs won Best Performance in a Canadian Film at the 2016 Whistler Film Fest and Best Actress at the 2017 American Indian Film Festival for her work in the feature film, The Sun at Midnight.
In 2022, Jacobs landed on the cover of Teen Vogue’s New Hollywood issue, and in 2021, she was placed on the Out100 list. In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter named Jacobs as one of Canada’s Rising Stars. In the same year, she was also honored by Telefilm Canada at the 2017 Birks Diamond Tribute, celebrating women in film. Jacobs was given the title of TIFF Rising Star at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
Jacobs has also explored the other side of the camera, with her directorial debut of the short film Stolen, which won Best Aboriginal Film at the 2017 Yorkton Film Festival. Her second short film Rae garnered Best Youth Work prize at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival. It was also an official selection of the 2018 Palm Springs International ShortFest and was named as one of the Best Female-Directed Films by Refinery29. The feature film This Place, co-written by Jacobs, was named a recipient of the Talent to Watch fund from Telefilm Canada.
While pursuing her acting career, she studied to be a counsellor and worked at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. Jacobs attended the Canadian Film Centre’s (CFC) Acting Conservatory.
Outside of acting and filmmaking, Jacobs is fulfilling her goal of learning her Native language and taking Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) classes. Jacobs’ other passion lies in Indigenous rights and LGBTQ2S+ activism. She was an original founder of the Kahnawà:ke Youth Forum, where she led and organized protests and rallies. Recently, Jacobs has been focusing her activism through her art, hoping to create change within communities and to alter the perspective of how modern Indigenous people are seen.