biography Sean was never the type of kid growing up who dreamed of being famous. He didn’t care if people were gonna know his name or not. In fact, the only thing he dreamed about when he was young was escaping a day without getting bullied by kids in his class for being a nerd. He was focused more on his grades and trying not to get tricked into giving up his homework by the pretty girl to care about if people knew him. That was until he was 12 and his parents, Michael and Joy Gibbins, uprooted their family from Ottawa and moved them to Toronto.

After the move, Sean decided to reinvent himself since no one knew who he was. It also helped that he hit that age where a kid can go from looking like Buckwheat to a young Idris Elba. With his new found confidence and attitude toward life, Sean, who decided to go by Malcolm at that time, grabbed like by the horns and decided to take some risks. Risks that included listening to a talent scout who came up to him at a mall when he was 15 instead of walking away from a middle aged man who approached teenagers at a mall. Taking the man’s card home, his mom arranged a meeting to see what the guy was all about. Before either of them knew it, Macolm was starring on Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001-2005.

After ending his run as (Wheelchair) Jimmy, Malcolm turned his attention to a passion he got from his mom, Joy, a choir teacher, which was singing/rapping. Between 2006 and 2009, Malcolm, who started going by his real name, Sean, put out three mixtapes that featured artists like Lupe Fiasco, Trey Songz, Lil Wayne, Omarion, etc.

In 2009, Sean released the EP So Far Gone, which won him the Rap Recording of the Year at the 2010 Juno Awards. The album debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200 and gained him critical success in the music business, reaffirming his idea to give up acting to pursue a music career.

Since 2009, Sean has released 4 studio albums, with a 5th on the way in 2016, 2 mixtapes, has won 38 awards, been nominated for 183 awards, starred in the 2015 film Dope as a drug dealer named Dom, started his own record label, and been an internet meme thanks to his dancing skills (see: Hotline Bling) and general social media presence.