Kendall Campus Alumnus Roars Into The Jurassic World

When Béchir Sylvain was 13 years old, he rarely saw actors that looked like him on the big screen. 

“I would just make up that one of [the] characters was Haitian,” said Sylvain, who grew up in Haiti watching classics like Indiana Jones, Back To The Future and Jurassic Park.

Nearly three decades later, reality has exceeded the dreams Sylvain envisioned. 

The 43-year-old Kendall Campus alumnus is starring in the latest installment of Jurassic Park—Jurassic World Rebirth.

Set five years after the events of Jurrasic World Dominion, the film follows a team searching for dinosaur DNA that “will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind,” according to an article on nbc.com.

Sylvain is part of the dinosaur-hunting crew led by Black Widow’s Scarlett Johanson as Zora Bennet. 

He shares the screen with actors like Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey and Emmy nominee Rupert Friend. Steven Speilberg, producer of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, also returns as an executive producer for the movie.

“I hope a lot of young artists that are Haitian that see me get inspired to say, ‘Okay, cool, there is a possibility to reach the highest heights,’” Sylvain said.

Filming, which began in June and is projected to conclude in October, has taken place in Thailand, Malta and London. 

Sylvain spent the first month training for the action of the movie: learning how to drive a boat, mountain climb and swim. 

Some of the most challenging scenes to shoot were in the muggy mangroves of Thailand—with water “up to [their] necks” and the threat of snakes—and in the intense heat of Malta.

But those challenges are nothing compared to his acting career.

Sylvain, who immigrated to Miami from Haiti when he was 13 years old, discovered his passion for theater in an acting class during his senior year at Miami Killian Senior High. 

However, his love for the industry truly bloomed at Miami Dade College, where he learned the foundations of theater, such as acting, set design, lighting, costumes and makeup. 

“Béchir’s nickname was ‘spotlight’ because he would walk in a room and all eyes would turn on him,” said Sheaun Mckinney, who attended the theater program at MDC with Sylvain. “He would put on a show wherever we would go—singing, dancing, whatever it was.”

His first performance was in The Miser, a comedic play by French playwright Molière, where he starred as Mr. Anselme, and was eventually cast as the lead of Godspell, a musical by John-Michael Tebelak, despite his struggle with English. 

“I remember we did a first read through and [it] took at least two and a half hours because I was reading so slow,” recalls Sylvain, who learned English by watching American TV shows and the news.  “I could feel everybody’s judgment.”

After three years at MDC, Sylvain transferred to Southern Methodist University in Texas to pursue a degree in fine arts. But when his father, Joseph, died from cancer in 2005, he dropped out and returned to Miami to take care of his mother. 

Despite juggling multiple gigs—serving as a manager at Johnny Rockets, a street performer and a merchandise stocker at Victoria’s Secret—Sylvain struggled to make ends meet. 

Refusing to give up on his acting career, he purchased a one-way ticket to California in 2007.

“I took a leap of faith and believed in myself, but decided to just go out there because if I was going to be miserable, I might as well be miserable pursuing something I love, instead of being somewhere where I literally [felt] like I [was] just dying,” Sylvain recalls. 

Within a week of arriving in Los Angeles with only $200 in his pocket, he landed his first acting gig at the intimate Stella Adler Theatre that seats less than 100 guests.  

The following year, Sylvain landed a national commercial with Allstate insurance. That led to other gigs with  Progressive, Toyota, Hyundai and McDonald’s. 

Those opportunities catapulted him into bigger roles. By 2011, he was cast as the main character’s love interest in the sitcom Love That Girl! and six years later he landed a part in the comedy/drama series Claws.

But tragedy continued to follow him. 

In 2011, Sylvain fell asleep while driving and crashed into a tree. He fractured his arm and his leg broke off his hip; after undergoing surgery and four months of physical therapy, he learned to walk again. 

Seven years later, Sylvain’s wife of four years, Shannon, died of colon cancer.

“Every time I thought I was going to quit, God figured out a way and always came through…if it wasn’t for my faith, truly, I don’t know if I would’ve continued doing this,” he said. “Something kept pushing me, egging me on and telling me that I [was] going to be okay.”

In honor of his wife, Sylvain partnered with the Colon Cancer Alliance to expand Shannon’s Brown Sugar Rehab, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness on colon cancer. 

Apart from Jurassic World Rebirth, Sylvain has recently starred in BMF (Black Mafia Family), a crime drama that follows a drug trafficking and money laundering organization, and Diarra From Detroit, a comedy-drama about a divorced schoolteacher who stumbles upon a decades-old crime mystery.

Regardless of his next production, Sylvain’s goal is simple—to be an example for aspiring  Haitian actors. 

“This is an amazing story about perseverance, about determination,” said Sylvain’s lifelong friend Scotty Cayemitte. “You take a kid [raised] in Haiti that can barely speak English, you know, learned English off of watching TV, and now he’s in Hollywood? Who has that kind of story?”

Jurassic World Rebirth is slated to premiere in theaters on July 2, 2025. 

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