The Chosen’s Giavani Cairo Credits The Series With Rekindling His Walk With Christ
Giavani Cairo walked into a season of doubt and walked out changed. He was ready to quit acting and move home, questioning what his gifts were for and where God fit into the picture. The journey that followed looks unmistakably like a God-sized nudge.
In 2018 Cairo felt adrift in Los Angeles, frustrated by hollow parts and a sense that acting had lost its meaning. He took a step into service with a friend, volunteering at a homeless shelter, and set two plain goals: land a role in a series and draw nearer to God. Those goals were simple, but God often answers simple prayers with dramatic detours.
A Surrender That Became A Calling
Cairo describes a surrender point where he was prepared to pause his career and return to Michigan to be near family. “That was a complete surrender moment for me. Because I was willing to put my career on hold for whatever the case may be,” he said. “And, you know, He had another plan. … It’s just taught me a lot about trusting even when you don’t see signs initially.”
When auditions rolled around for a small, crowdfunded series called The Chosen, Cairo tried out and won the role of Thaddeus. Thaddeus is a quiet disciple in the New Testament, a soul who seeks peace and leans toward the margins, and that gentle spirit became a real mirror for Cairo. Playing him didn’t just fill a resume slot; it opened a spiritual door.
Cairo has said plainly, “I grew up Christian, but it just seemed like that’s something you did as a kid, and I never really related to it.” That honest confession captures how faith can go dormant without community and purpose. The Chosen offered both, and for Cairo it became “just the beginning of my faith renewal, and it’s made me want to be a better person.”
Director Dallas Jenkins noticed something rare in Cairo’s audition, and the crew felt it on set too. “I thought he was making up a disciple,” Cairo laughed about the audition, which was meant to capture authenticity not imitation. The series’ grassroots start—crowdfunded and uncertain—created a space where actors felt called to serve a story bigger than themselves.
“Actors pray to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” he said, reflecting on why this project matters. For many viewers the show is an invitation to return to the text and to the heart of the gospel, and for Cairo it was an invitation to step back into faith. When art and conviction align, lives get rearranged.
The role also changed his personal life. Cairo met Bella, a journalist who watched the series and found her way back to faith through its episodes, and their relationship deepened quickly. “She actually reignited her faith by watching the show, too. That’s how we met. She’s an excellent journalist, and she interviewed Dallas a few years back, and that’s how we got to talking. It’s crazy how full-circle moments happen.
“The rest is history.” Their engagement this summer is part of the story that started with a small audition and a willingness to trust. It’s a reminder that faith restored often reaches into every corner of life—work, purpose, and marriage.
The Chosen has grown from those uncertain first episodes into a phenomenon that connects viewers with the Gospels in a fresh, cinematic way. Season 5 begins streaming on the series’ official app Sept. 28, and for many it will be another chance to renew what matters most. For Cairo, the show was not a career reset so much as a spiritual reawakening that rewired his priorities.
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