Early life
Kazadi was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia with his mother, Fatou Kazadi, at the age of seven.1 He attended French-language schools, including École Anne Hébert and École des Pionniers, before transitioning to English-language education.1 His mother became his career manager and executive coach after recognizing his talent for mimicking characters from films and television.1
Career
Kazadi made his screen debut in 2015 at the age of nine, playing Nomad Boy in the ABC science-fiction thriller series The Whispers.1 He then took a roughly three-year hiatus from acting to pursue professional soccer before returning to the screen in 2018.1
After his return, he landed a supporting role as Omar in the horror reboot Child's Play (2019).1 He followed that with recurring television work, including the role of Young James (Jimmy) Olsen in the CW superhero series Supergirl and a recurring role as Malcolm in Riverdale (2019-2021).1 He also appeared in the Hallmark Christmas in Evergreen television films during this period.
His most substantial early role came in the independent crime thriller Chained (2020), in which he played the lead character Taylor.3 The performance earned him the Best Young Actor award at the New York International Film Awards (2021) and nominations for Best Lead Performance (Male) at the UBCP/ACTRA Awards (2021) and Best Actor at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards (2021).1
In 2023, Kazadi starred as Mike Broadstreet in Zombie Town, a horror-comedy adaptation of R.L. Stine's novel of the same name directed by Peter Lepeniotis.2 The film was released on September 1, 2023.2
Beyond acting, Kazadi is also active as a recording artist. He has also competed in karate, winning a gold medal at the Junior Canadian Shotokan Karate Tournament.
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Kazadi played Thick Neck, a student attending Summerville Middle School in Summerville, Oklahoma. Thick Neck is one of Phoebe Spengler's classmates in the summer school science class taught by Gary Grooberson. He appears in the classroom scenes on Phoebe's first day and again during the class screening of Chucky, where he sits at the back of the room next to a classmate known as Burner Girl. Thick Neck appears in Chapters 3 and 5 of the film. He also features in the film's second trailer in a deleted scene in which a redheaded student pops a bag of Doritos in Phoebe's face; Thick Neck appears in the surrounding classroom context in that sequence.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Marlon Kazadi," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Kazadi.
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"Zombie Town," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_Town.
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"Chained (2020 film)," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chained_(2020_film).
