Musa Jackson '79 was born and raised in Harlem and is a true renaissance man.

One of the pioneering Black male models, he was discovered by the beauty editor of GQ magazine in 1983 and went on to model for GQ, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Rolling Stone, and more. He walked the runways in Paris and Milan for Jean Paul Gaultier’s debut collection, and has worked some of the world’s greatest photographers, including Albert Watson, Mario Testino, Lothar Schmitt, Toscani, Fabrizio Ferri, Marc Baptiste, Robert Erdman, Barry McKinley, Greg Gorman, and Patrick Demarchelier. As Harlem’s first ever international top Black male model, he was also the first Black male model for The Gap to be featured in a nationwide campaign. He has starred in over 40 commercials for companies like Adidas, Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi.

Musa sold his first screenplay to Walt Disney’s Hollywood Pictures and was one of the winners of the American Gem Short Screenplay Award. At New York Fashion Week, he produced fashion shows for Diane Von Furstenberg, Carolina Herrera, and Betsy Johnson. He produced Nona Hendryx’s first visual mixed media Art show, Lena Horne’s 100th birthday tribute, and a 45th anniversary tribute to “Claudine,” the classic film by John Berry. He had his own society column in Uptown Magazine, which named him “The Harlem Ambassador” and is the CEO and Editor In Chief of Ambassador Digital Magazine. He made his TV debut in the Amazon series “Harlem” and is featured in “Summer of Soul,” an award-winning documentary that chronicles the untold true story of the greatest free outdoor concert in Harlem history during the summer of 1969.