• Michael Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, is portraying the King of Pop in the new biopic “Michael.”
• Jaafar is the son of Michael’s brother, Jermaine Jackson, and Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza.
• He had no dance training or acting experience before being cast in “Michael,” but he did make music.

Jaafar Jackson is the buzziest new name from one of the most influential families in show business.

The 29-year-old Los Angeles native steps into the moonwalking shoes of his late uncle, Michael Jackson, in the new blockbuster biopic “Michael.”

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “The Equalizer”) and written by John Logan (“Gladiator,” “Skyfall”), “Michael” follows Jackson’s career from the Jackson 5 era in the ’60s to the “Bad” era in the ’80s.

The biopic has the support of the Jackson estate — but that’s not the reason Michael Jackson’s nephew was cast in the role.

“It wasn’t about what he was saying or even his look. It was just a feeling of rightness that was so strong I couldn’t ignore it,” Graham King, who previously produced the Oscar-winning Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” said of meeting Jaafar during the casting process.

“I felt something a bit like it when Rami Malek walked into my office and said, ‘I’d love to play Freddie Mercury,'” King told NME. “But this took it to a whole new level. There was something so spiritual about Jaafar that just talking with him about Michael got me emotional. We looked at nearly 200 actors around the globe, and no one could beat Jaafar.”

Here’s everything to know about Jaafar, his career, and his relationships with the Jacksons.

Jaafar is the son of Jermaine Jackson and Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza.

Jaafar’s father, Jermaine, was one of the original members of the Jackson 5, along with his brothers, Jackie, Tito, Marlon, and Michael.

Jermaine was the group’s second lead vocalist (Michael was first) until he left to pursue solo stardom in 1975. He was replaced by his youngest brother, Randy, and the group rebranded to The Jacksons.

Jaafar’s mother, Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza, was born in Colombia. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in fashion design and marketing, per her LinkedIn, and more recently launched Alejandra Jackson Designs.

Before Jermaine and Alejandra began dating, she was in a relationship with Jermaine’s brother, Randy. Although they never married, Alejandra and Randy had two children together: a daughter, Genevieve, who was born in 1989, and a son, Randy Jr., born in 1992.

“Randy didn’t treat me like I was the one,” Alejandra told the New York Post’s Stacy Brown. “I just thought that Jermaine was different, that he was more family-oriented.”

Jermaine and Alejandra married on March 18, 1995, per People. They welcomed Jaafar on July 25, 1996, followed by his brother, Jermajesty, in 2000.

Jermaine filed for divorce from Alejandra in 2004. It was finalized in 2008 with Alejandra winning physical custody of Jaafar and Jermajesty, TMZ reported at the time.

Jaafar Jackson makes his acting debut portraying his famous uncle in “Michael.”

“Michael” producer Graham King and casting director Kimberly Hardin conducted a worldwide search before offering the role to Jaafar, per NME.

One major snag? Jaafar had no formal dance training or acting credits before “Michael,” save for one episode of “The Jacksons: Next Generation,” a 2015 reality show that followed the lives of his cousins, Taj, Taryll, and TJ (then known as the R&B-pop trio 3T).

Jaafar has said he rehearsed for three years — two of which were part of the audition process — and worked with Michael’s former choreographers, Rich and Tone Talauega, to learn his uncle’s signature dance moves.

“We had to take that syllabus and then infuse it into Jaafar,” Rich said on the KTLA 5 Morning News. “But let me tell you, man, he’s a Jackson, you know, he has this talent deep down inside his DNA. It just took us some time, but we pulled it out of him, and the work that he put into it was exceptional.”

Jaafar already shared his uncle’s musical ambitions; he began playing the piano at age 12 and released his debut single, “Got Me Singing,” in 2019. His website cites Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, and “his own family’s rich musical heritage” as key influences.

Jaafar Jackson isn’t actually singing in “Michael.”

Bucking the recent biopic trend of actors singing live on set — like Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan and Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen — Jaafar did not rely on his own voice to carry the musical scenes in “Michael.”

Instead, the hit songs featured in the movie are “gloriously remastered and superbly lip-synched,” according to Deadline’s chief film critic Pete Hammond.

When it came to dancing and choreography, Jaafar said his goal was not to impersonate his uncle, but rather to embody his performance style.

“That was a challenge,” Jaafar told Entertainment Tonight. “Hitting every moment, every beat, but also having the energy and the showmanship behind the moves, too.”

Jaafar named “Billie Jean” — specifically Michael’s 1983 performance of the song on the TV special “Motown 25” — as the hardest sequence to nail while filming.

Jaafar’s performance in “Michael” has the support of Michael’s mom, brothers, and sons.

When Jaafar landed the lead role in “Michael,” he received a vote of confidence from a core member of his family: Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson.

“Jaafar embodies my son,” Katherine said in a press release. “It’s so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers.”

The movie’s executive producers include Michael’s eldest son, Prince Jackson, and three of his brothers: Jermaine, Jackie, and Marlon.

All four men attended the Los Angeles premiere of “Michael” at the Dolby Theatre, alongside Michael’s middle sister, LaToya Jackson — a strong show of support from the Jackson family.

“It was a process that I really had to earn, and it really proved to the filmmakers and myself and my family that I can get to that point where I can pull it off,” Jaafar told Today. “I honestly wouldn’t be able to pull this off if I didn’t have the support.”

Michael’s other three siblings — his eldest sister, Rebbie Jackson, his youngest sister, Janet Jackson, and his youngest brother, Randy — were not in attendance and will not be portrayed in the biopic. (Michael’s father, Joe Jackson, played by Colman Domingo, died in 2018. Michael’s brother Tito, played by Rhyan Hill, died in 2024.)

“I wish everybody was in the movie,” LaToya told Variety on the red carpet. On Janet’s absence specifically, LaToya added, “She was asked, and she kindly declined, so you have to respect her wishes.”

Meanwhile, Michael’s daughter, Paris Jackson, has criticized the biopic as “sugar-coated” and clarified that she had “zero percent involvement” in the production.

Paris said she was asked to read one of the first drafts of the “Michael” script and gave notes about details that she felt were “dishonest,” but she was told that her notes wouldn’t be addressed.

“I just butted out and left it alone because it’s not my project,” Paris wrote on Instagram. “They’re going to make whatever they’re going to make. A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it.”

“A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy,” she added.

Neither Paris nor her younger brother, Bigi Jackson, joined Prince at the film’s star-studded Los Angeles premiere — although Bigi did make a rare appearance to attend the “Michael” premiere in Berlin earlier in the month.

Paris is now involved in a complicated legal battle with the Jackson estate over the movie’s financials. The estate has fired back that Paris has “a complete lack of understanding about how the motion picture industry works and the role of producers in it.”

• Meta told staff on Thursday that it planned to eliminate 10% of its workforce.
• Inside the company, employees are bracing for weeks of limbo as they wait to find out who will be cut.
• Meta employees responded internally with a mixture of questions, concerns, and jokes.

Welcome to “28 days of hell.”

That’s how one Meta employee characterized the tech giant’s announcement that thousands of jobs will be cut on May 20. Employees flooded internal forums with similar posts, many of which were filled with anxiety, dark humor, and questions as they wait to learn who will be out of a job.

“How are you motivating yourself to work for the next 1 month with layoffs confirmed?” one person posted on the anonymous workplace app Blind, in a section just for Meta employees.

Someone else replied, “I’m motivating myself to do stuff that I can put on my resume for my next job lol.”

In a memo sent to staff on Thursday, Meta said it shared some layoff details earlier than usual because the news had already leaked. The company plans to cut around 10% of employees next month and close 6,000 open roles.

“I know this leaves everyone with nearly a month of ambiguity, which is incredibly unsettling,” wrote Meta’s chief people officer Janelle Gale.

For some Meta employees, the fact that company leadership acknowledged layoffs brought some relief. The layoffs had been so widely discussed internally that the announcement helped ease some uncertainty, according to one employee who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

One of the top comments under Gale’s internal Meta post was a picture of an elephant, a reference to leadership addressing the elephant in the room. Reuters first reported Meta was planning sweeping layoffs in March, and employees have been speculating on the extent of the cuts in the weeks since.

“elephant addressed!” commented another employee. Another posted a picture of an envelope that read: “Addressed to: “ELEPHANT.”

Others said that having to wait almost a month to find out who would be affected created anxiety. One person posted that this was their first week at the company. “It might be goodbye for me,” they wrote.

Another employee, who requested anonymity due to sensitivity, told Business Insider that the announcement added pressure for them to deliver results over the next month because it’s unknown which teams will be affected by the cuts.

“I’m a little stressed about making impact in the next month,” they said.

Despite a sense of added pressure, it’s not the employee’s first go-around with cuts at the company. The worker said they’re going to continue working as usual, assuming the worst while trying to make the most of the next month as they wait for further updates.

“I assume I’m always two months away from being laid off, no matter what leadership says, so I’m going to continue to operate as usual,” the employee said.

Employees also commented on Gale’s internal post with questions.

One person asked if Meta staff would receive their August 15 stock payouts, which are part of some employees’ compensation packages. Gale said that impacted employees would have a termination date prior to the August vest and would therefore not receive it.

“Because of the timing of the notifications, we will have just had the May 15 vest. There are some instances, based on work location, where people will remain employed through the August 15 vest,” Gale wrote. Another employee thanked Gale for the clarification.

Another employee asked if travel would be restricted the week of May 20. “We are not restricting travel company-wide. VPs will share team-specific guidance,” Gale responded.

‘I feel more anxious about surviving’

On the Meta employee section of Blind, some users asked why Meta couldn’t offer voluntary buyouts. Microsoft on Thursday offered one-time early retirement buyouts to thousands of its long-time employees, and Google has extended the same offers to staff across some orgs.

Many posts were from users asking others for information about which groups might be affected.

In a longer post, one user said the downside might be surviving the cuts.

“I feel more anxious about surviving this layoff,” they wrote, recalling several rounds of layoffs at the company since 2022.

“Because we all know it’s just gonna get worse for those of us who are left behind and have to absorb even more work, amongst other declining factors in this sad fearful company,” they wrote.

• Over the last decade, matcha has gained popularity in the US.
• Now, most major coffee chains across the US offer their own version of a matcha latte.
• I tried matcha lattes from Dunkin’, Starbucks, and Tim Hortons, and one got the flavor just right.

Move over iced coffee — my preferred drink for quenching my thirst on a hot day is iced matcha.

Matcha, a type of powdered green tea, has steadily been gaining popularity in the West after being a staple in Japan for centuries. In fact, it’s become so popular so quickly on TikTok that the country has experienced shortages.

With the rise of matcha and its health benefits (it’s high in antioxidants, making it a superfood, and can bolster immunity and help with inflammation), it’s no wonder that some of the most popular coffee chains in the US have hopped on the matcha train.

Starbucks has had matcha on the menu since 2006, but the chain has acknowledged that 20 years later, “matcha is having a moment.” Dunkin’ and Tim Hortons embraced matcha much more recently, adding it to their menus in 2020.

Matcha, to me, seems like the perfect springtime drink. So, to celebrate the end of what seemed like the longest winter on record, I tried the iced matcha lattes at Starbucks, Dunkin’, and Tim Hortons.

Here’s what I thought.

My first stop was Starbucks, which I was surprised to see had an entire collection “inspired by matcha.”

The sign read, “We love it as much as you do. It’s why we made this collection that captures matcha’s unique vibrancy and energy.”

I was particularly fond of the mug on the far left, with the paint splatters, and the mug second from the right.

We were off to a strong start, but the good vibes didn’t last long.

I was already dubious before taking a sip, after noticing how separated the latte was.

A grande iced matcha latte at my local Starbucks costs $6.25 for 16 fluid ounces.

I only needed to take one sip to know something did not taste right to me.

Matcha, a type of green tea, is not sweet — it’s bitter. So I usually add a little bit of sweetener to it (most frequently a pump of vanilla).

Starbucks adds, by default, three pumps of classic syrup to a matcha latte, so if I added more syrup, it could be disgustingly sweet.

However, this drink was so bitter that I had to double-check that the syrup had been added. It had — I just couldn’t handle it, I guess.

It looked good, but overall it wasn’t for me.

This drink looked thick and creamy, precisely what I would want, but it ended up being a bit more watery than I thought.

Ultimately, it felt like I was drinking bitter, watery green tea. The chain uses unsweetened powder, which I think threw me off.

Starbucks confirmed that in January 2025, it switched from sweetened matcha powder to an unsweetened one to give customers more customization options.

Once I shook it up and stopped drinking from the straw, the latte got better, but it still wasn’t for me.

Of the three chains I visited, Starbucks easily had the most options to customize its drinks, and it has the most expansive matcha menu, with 16 different types, including Dubai chocolate, banana bread, and lavender cream. Clearly, the chain is responding to customer demand for its matcha.

In the future, I think I would add vanilla syrup or try another flavor combination to reach my preferred level of sweetness. But as it stands, I didn’t love the basic option.

Onto the next!

If Starbucks was too bitter, Dunkin’ was on the opposite end of the spectrum.

A medium matcha latte from Dunkin’ set me back $5.49, so it was slightly cheaper than Starbucks and came in a larger size at 24 fluid ounces.

However, it really just tasted like matcha-flavored milk to me.

Both Starbucks and Dunkin’ use three scoops of matcha powder in their standard drinks, but while Starbucks uses syrup to sweeten it, Dunkin’ uses cane sugar.

The drink was on the thinner side.

This didn’t taste bad, but if I was really craving the earthy taste of matcha, I wouldn’t go back to Dunkin’.

That said, I would recommend this to someone who has never had matcha before and is looking to ease into it. They’ll be shopping for the ceremonial grade stuff in no time.

Dunkin’ did not respond to a request for comment regarding its matcha recipe or use of sweeteners.

To my surprise, my favorite matcha latte came from Tim Hortons.

This cost $5.27 for 16 fluid ounces, placing it in the middle of the three in terms of cost per fluid ounce.

Tim Hortons uses a sweetened matcha powder, which I think made all the difference. They don’t add any additional sweeteners, so this struck the perfect balance of being slightly sweet, not too milky, and still having that earthy flavor.

Tim Hortons did not respond to a request for comment regarding its matcha recipe.

I felt like Goldilocks sipping this.

Not too sweet, not too bitter, a reasonable price — what more could I ask for?

I was also into the little maple leaf Tim Hortons puts on its cups. Thank you, Canada!

Sadly, there’s only one Tim’s in all of Manhattan (in addition to two in Brooklyn and four in Staten Island). The Midtown location isn’t the most convenient from my apartment or office, so I don’t think I’ll be able to add it to the rotation.

I really enjoyed the Timbits I ordered with my drink, too.

Please expand, Tim Hortons! I’ll become a dedicated Horton Head and drink matcha every day if one were closer.

• Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said it’s important to tell Michael Jackson’s story authentically.
• He said he would support a “Michael” sequel that examines Jackson’s child sexual-abuse allegations.
• “Michael” originally dramatized allegations from 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, but the storyline was cut.

Though “Michael” doesn’t examine the darker chapters of Michael Jackson’s life, that doesn’t mean a potential sequel won’t.

The biopic on the King of Pop, which premieres in theaters on April 24, has had a complicated journey to screen. Its release was delayed several times: first due to the 2023 strikes, and then due to reshoots that were required after the filmmakers learned some scenes violated the terms of a $20 million settlement with the family of then-13-year-old Jordan Chandler, who accused Jackson of sexual abuse in 1993.

Jackson and his estate have consistently denied all allegations.

As a result of the reshoots, the movie’s framing and scope changed. Now, “Michael” largely focuses on Jackson’s meteoric rise to superstardom, starting with the Jackson 5 and ending when Jackson (played by his real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson) is about to start making his hit solo album, “Bad.” The only abuse examined in the movie is scenes that depict Jackson’s father, Joe (Colman Domingo), whipping him when he was a child.

Since the film now covers only a portion of what the original movie would have, a potential sequel seems on the table: Not for nothing, the movie ends with a title card that reads, “His Story Continues.”

A potential part two of “Michael” could spotlight not just more of Jackson’s career highlights, but the superstar’s fall from grace, which came in the form of child sexual abuse allegations and a 2005 criminal trial involving another child, Gavin Arvizo.

Jackson was acquitted on all counts after a highly publicized three month trial. He died in 2009 of acute propofol intoxication after his personal physician administered the sedative.

Do the allegations against Jackson need to be addressed in a potential sequel to tell the full story of Michael Jackson?

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson supports it if director Antione Fuqua and writer John Logan decide to go down that road.

“From my perspective, it’s important to try to give the audience an authentic understanding of who Michael Jackson was,” Fogelson told Business Insider. “So I think that can be done with or without some of what was in the third act that had to be scrapped.”

“Michael,” which was made with the support of Jackson’s estate, initially depicted the police raid of Jackson’s Neverland Ranch following allegations of sexual abuse by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler. The filmmakers discovered after shooting that there was a clause in Chandler’s settlement barring any depiction of his case in a movie. According to Variety, reshoots cost the Jackson estate around $15 million, as the Neverland Ranch raid had bookended the original film.

“There has been so much energy and ink with people speculating,” Fogelson continued. “Speaking for myself, I think when you watch this movie you are given a window into the extraordinarily unusual circumstances that impacted Michael Jackson from a very young age. This movie isn’t afraid to reflect the wildly unusual circumstances of his life. But we believe more story can and hopefully will be told, and that’s going to come down to not only the performance of the film but the audience telling us they want more, and we believe based on the response we’ve gotten that’s what they are going to say.”

Despite the movie currently holding a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “Michael” seems to be critic-proof. The film is tracking to earn north of $100 million at the worldwide box office in its opening weekend, including $70 million-plus domestically, which would best past hit music biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Straight Outta Compton.”

• “Sinceerly” is a Chrome plugin that rewrites your perfectly worded emails to add typos.
• You can select “Subtle,” “Human,” or “CEO” modes for maximum brevity and typos.
• In a time when AI writing is common, typos are a status symbol showing you hand-wrote an email (or not).

Not so long ago, writing an email with perfect grammar and spelling was a sign of professionalism, thoughtfulness and care, of education and intelligence, of a sharp and agile mind.

Now, it just means we assume you’re a lazy jerk who used ChatGPT or some other AI tool.

The pendulum has finally swung, and after several centuries of the English language, good writing in private communication is no longer a prized thing. Now we are entering a terrifying and chaotic period in which typos are good, and all-lower-case missives connote power.

The era of keyboard chaos is upon us.

Typos are increasingly a status symbol showing you hand-crafted an email instead of using AI. If your email is too perfect, it might scream “AI!” So, of course, there’s an AI tool that adds typos back into your AI-written emails.

Sinceerly is a Chrome plugin created by Ben Horwitz that will rewrite your emails to add back mistakes, making them look more human.

There are three modes:

“Subtle,” which will streamline the text by knocking out filler words and turning things into contractions when it can. Then there’s “Human,” which adds an even more conversational tone — both Subtle and Human typically add a typo in the first sentence.

Here is a sample email I wrote to my boss to tell him about my lunch plan:

Here’s that same email, turned into “CEO” mode:

And finally, there’s “CEO,” which goes all lowercase and injects intense brevity. If there’s no signature in your email, sometimes it adds a “sent from my iPhone” (lol).

CEOs indeed do have a really specific email style that is often very fast in response time and short, which can reflect the power differential between the boss and the person they’re corresponding with.

Horwitz, who is about to graduate from Harvard Business School in May, told me he made Sinceerly using Claude and was inspired by his own experience.

“I am a terrible typist, naturally, and lightly dyslexic,” he said. “It would take me so long in my first job straight out of college to write emails and make sure there were no typos and everything. When Grammarly came around, it was like, ‘Oh, OK, this is pretty good for me.’ But now my email inbox is filled with AI slop.”

Horwitz told me he made the plugin just for fun, as a goof, and doesn’t necessarily expect a lot of people to pay for it (after a few free test runs, it asks you to pay $4.99 to keep using it). Horwitz isn’t really in it for the money; he likes making playful pranks about business life (he previously made a collection of stitched baseball hats you could buy with titles like “product,” “engineering,” and “gtm” for founders who, uh, wear a lot of hats).

I don’t think the ink is yet dry on the status of typos in emails; AI in digital communication is still so new, and the norms around it are still evolving.

As a terrible typist myself, I am pro-typo and believe that we should let our messy human fingers speak for us. If we’re asking someone to take the time to read our emails, we should take the time to write them — even if that includes a few mistakes.

• Instagram launched a new app in Italy and Spain this week called “Instants.”
• A hodgepodge of apps like Snapchat, Locket, and BeReal, the app is meant to be “low-pressure.”
• Meta did not share more details about its plans to roll out the app in the US.

Meta is welcoming a new app to the family.

Instagram launched a new app called “Instants” in Italy and Spain on Thursday, but it’s not live elsewhere yet, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

Instants lets users share disappearing photos with their friends. These photos last 24 hours and can’t be viewed more than once. The app’s slogan, per the current app listing: “Real life, real quick.”

The app sounds like a Frankenstein of social apps like Locket, BeReal, and, of course, Snapchat.

The app is intended to “give people low-pressure ways to connect with friends,” the spokesperson added.

Users can take photos (or short videos) with the app’s camera and add text, but cannot edit the content further. They can then share that content with a limited audience, specifically mutual followers and close friends.

“We’re exploring multiple versions of Instants to see what people like, and will listen to our community,” the spokesperson said.

Expanding Meta’s portfolio of social apps has become commonplace for the tech giant. Instagram has Threads and Edits under its umbrella, and Meta also has the AI-focused Meta AI app.

Meta did not share when, or whether, the company will roll out the Instants app in the US.

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