Dante Basco : biography
Danté Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for voicing Zuko in the Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Jake Long from the Disney series American Dragon: Jake Long, and playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook.
Life and career
Dante Basco is a Filipino American born in Pittsburg, California and raised in Cerritos and Paramount, California. He is the brother of Darion Basco, Derek Basco, Dion Basco, and Arianna Basco. In his early years, he was part of the Streat Freaks breakdancing crew. When he got into acting, he started taking on minor roles in television. He later appeared in his most famous role as the charismatic red-stripe-haired leader Rufio of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 film Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. A punk band is later named after this character. He attended Orange County High School of the Arts in the Music and Theatre Conservatory and graduated in 1993.
He had guest roles on television shows The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, and had a recurring role on Moesha. After portraying characters of various Asian ethnicities except his own, he portrayed a Filipino-American alongside his three brothers and sister in the independent film The Debut. He and his brothers starred in the sitcom Naked Brown Men. He played a gay teenager in the 1999 film But I’m A Cheerleader. He starred as breakdancer Ramos in the 2006 film Take the Lead alongside Antonio Banderas. In many films, he hip-hop dances as he did in a Verizon Wireless commercial, as well as rapping and breaking in a Sprite commercial. He produced and co-starred in a music video parody of the song "Rehab" called "Wiihab".
He has done voice acting for many animated materials: Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long, Matt in the short-lived animated series Zevo-3, several voices in the video game Saints Row, Shingo in the video games Skate, Skate 2, and Skate 3, Seeing Farther in the video game Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, the male youth voice for the MMORPG game Aion: Tower of Eternity, and Iroh II in The Legend of Korra.
His likeness as Rufio in Hook as well as Basco’s speech mannerisms on his Tumblr blog served as the basis for the alien troll character Rufioh Nitram in the webcomic Homestuck of which Basco is a fan.
Video games
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2004 | Def Jam Fight for New York | Voice 3 |