Dante Basco

Dante R. Basco (born August 29, 1975)[1] is an American film, television and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's Hook and for his many voice acting roles, most notably as Prince Zuko from Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long from Disney Channel's American Dragon: Jake Long.

Dante Basco
Basco at Nan Desu Kan 2017
Born
Dante R. Basco

(1975-08-29) August 29, 1975
Pittsburg, California, U.S.
OccupationActor, voice actor
Years active1988–present
RelativesDion Basco (brother)
Ella Jay Basco (niece)

Early life

Dante Basco is a Filipino American born in Pittsburg, California, and raised in Cerritos and Paramount, California.[2] He has four siblings, including actor Dion Basco.[3] In Dante's early years, he was part of the Streat Freaks breakdancing crew. He attended Orange County High School of the Arts[4] in the Music and Theatre Conservatory and graduated in 1993.

Career

He got into acting taking on minor roles in television. Basco's breakout performance was when he appeared as the leader Rufio of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman.[5] A punk band was later named after this character.

Basco 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 ethnicity 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".

In June 2017, he agreed with Jonah Feingold to work on a new film together, Bangarang, about the character Rufio. The development of the project started with a Kickstarter campaign.[6]

Basco streams gameplay on Twitch.[7]

Basco released his memoir From Rufio to Zuko through the independent publisher, Not a Cult.[7]

Voice acting
Basco talking to a Zuko cosplayer at Otakon 2014.

Basco has done voice acting for many animated productions, including Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long. He also voice acted Kwok Wong in The Proud Family.[8] He voiced Matt Martin/Kewl Breeze in the short-lived animated series Zevo-3. He is also Iroh II in The Legend of Korra.[9]

He contributed several voices for the video game Saints Row, as well as voicing Shingo in the video games Skate, Skate 2 and Skate 3. He voiced Seeing Farther in the video game Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and the Asmodian male youth voice for the MMORPG game Aion: Tower of Eternity.[9] He's also in the games Scarface: The World Is Yours, Aion, Aion: Upheaval and Mortal Kombat X.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1988 Moonwalker Romeo
1989 The Wizard Corey's friend Deleted Scenes
1990 Cold Dog Soup Chinese Boy
1991 Hook Rufio
1991 The Perfect Weapon Jimmy Ho
1995 A Goofy Movie Additional Voices
1995 Fist of the North Star Bat Direct-to-video
1996 Gangstaz Mario
1997 Fakin' da Funk Julian Lee
1998 Sinbad: The Battle of the Dark Knights Prince Hong
1999 But I'm a Cheerleader Dolph
2000 The Debut Ben Mercado
2000 Rave Jay Hoon
2001 Extreme Days Corey Ng
2003 Love Don't Cost a Thing Spoken Word Artist
2003 Biker Boyz Philly
2003 Naked Brown Men Dante
2006 Take the Lead Ramos
2008 This Life Alex
2008 Nite Tales: The Movie Gerard
2009 The Outside Indo
2009 Blood and Bone Pinball Direct-to-video
2010 Blood River Chuck G
2010 Flipped Unknown Trailer only
2010 Subject: I Love You Nicky
2011 Paradise Broken[3] Ray
2012 Hang Loose[3] Dante
2014 Bad Asses Gangly Asian
2014 Anita Ho Taylor Bautista
2014 JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time Karate Kid (voice) Direct-to-video
2014 Hansel and Gretel Dad Short film
2014 Murder101 D. Phillips
2016 Jarhead 3: The Siege Blake Direct-to-video

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1988 The Wonder Years Gym Class Kid, Eddie, Kid #3 3 episodes
1989 Highway To Heaven Champ Hopkins Episode: "Choices"
1991 The Hit Man Pauly Television film
1992 Raven Lucas Episode: "The Journey"
1993 Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Sammy Episode: "Seoul Shake"
1995 Alien Nation: Body and Soul Trash #2 Television film
1995 500 Nations Himself (voice) Miniseries
1995 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Kevin Episode: "Cold Feet, Hot Body"
1996 Touched by an Angel Miguel Episode: "Random Acts"
1996 Nash Bridges Jimmy Chang Episode: "Home Invasion"
1997 Riot[10] Jeffrey Lee Television film
Segment: "Gold Mountain"
1998 Promised Land Tito Episode: "Out of Bounds"
1998 Moesha Marco 4 episodes
1998 Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Ghost of Rudi Hernandez Episode: "The Student"
1999 Undressed Jake 5 episodes
1999 Viper Rishi Lama Episode: "Holy Terror"
2000 The Steve Harvey Show Lee Episode: "Guess Who's Not Coming to Counseling"
2001 The Chronicle Noodles Episode: "Here There Be Dragons"
2001 A Kitty Bobo Show Kitty Bobo Television film
2002 The Chang Family Saves the World Television film
2002 The Proud Family Kwok Wong (voice) Episode: "Romeo Must Wed"
2002 Providence Justin Kim Episode: "All the King's Men"
2003 Kim Possible Fukushima (voice) Episode: "Exchange"
2005–07 American Dragon: Jake Long Jake Long (voice) 55 episodes
2005 Lilo & Stitch: The Series Episode: "Morpholomew"
2005–08 Avatar: The Last Airbender Prince Zuko, Soldier #1, Additional Voices 49 episodes
2006 Entourage Fukijama Episode: "What About Bob?"
2007 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Madrid 2 episodes
2009 Community Mike's Friend Episode: "Comparative Religion"
2010 CSI: Miami Ruben Franco Episode: "Happy Birthday"
2010 Generator Rex Tuck (voice) 5 episodes
2010 The Boondocks Jingmei (voice) Episode: "The Red Ball"
2010 Firebreather Kenny Rogers (voice) Television film
2010–11 Zevo-3 Matt Martin / Kewl Breeze (voice) 26 episodes
2011 Prime Suspect Bounce (voice) Episode: "Carnivorous Sheep"
2012 Hawaii Five-0 Nicky Chang Episode: "Pu'olo"
2012–14 The Legend of Korra General Iroh II 5 episodes
2013 Ultimate Spider-Man Scorpion (voice) Flash Thompson (voice) 2 episodes (as Scorpion)

Unknown # of episodes (as Flash Thompson)

2014 Love Midori Dante 2 episodes
2014, 2017 Star Wars Rebels Jai Kell (voice) 2 episodes
2014 Hell's Kitchen Himself Episode: "8 Chefs Compete"
2018 A Million Little Things Cory Episodes: "Unexpected" and "I Dare You"
2019 We Bare Bears Master Cheddar (voice) Episode: "Baby Orphan Ninja Bears"
2019 Victor and Valentino Javier (voice) Episode: "Legend of the Hidden Skate Park"

Web series
Year Title Role Notes
2013–present JustKiddingNews Himself
2014–19 Nostalgia Critic 6 episodes
2015 Let's Read Homestuck Rufioh Nitram Act 6, Intermission 3
2016[11] Achievement Hunter Presents: Let's Play Himself 2 episodes
2016–18 Camp Camp Billy "Snake" Nikssilp 3 episodes
2016 Perfect-timing villain Agent Tanner 1 episode
2017 Squad Wars Himself Episode: "The Try Guys 90s Boyband Music Video Challenge"
2018 Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures Narrator (voice) 11 episodes
2019 Rooster Teeth's Hardcore Tabletop: World Series 5 episodes

Video games
Year Title Voice role Notes
2004 Def Jam Fight for New York Additional Voices
2006 Saints Row Stillwater's Residents
2006 Scarface: The World Is Yours Additional Voices
2006 Avatar: The Last Airbender Prince Zuko
2007 Skate Shingo
2007 Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth Prince Zuko
2008 Avatar: The Last Airbender – Into the Inferno
2008 Aion Youth Male Voice, Additional Voices
2009 Skate 2 Shingo
2009 Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Seeing Farther
2009 Terminator Salvation Resistance Soldier
2010 Final Fantasy XIII Cocoon Inhabitants English dub
2010 Skate 3 Shingo
2011 Nicktoons MLB Prince Zuko
2012 Avatar: The Legend of Korra General Iroh II
2015 Mortal Kombat X Additional Voices[12]

Awards
gollark: What do you mean "bargain with it"?
gollark: I was talking about your entry and 7.4 days.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: What *was* coltrans thinking?
gollark: Yes, imagine rapidly.

See also

References
  1. "Dante R Basco, Born 08/29/1975". California Birth Index. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  2. Farris, Christopher (February 11, 2019). "These Filipinos Are the Voices of Modern Cartoon and Anime Characters". Esquire (magazine). Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  3. Jermel-Lynn Quillopo (22 March 2013). "Social Encore: Kinetic's perspective". Honolulu Pulse. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  4. Catherine Gewertz (December 26, 1992). "The Fine Art of Fame". LA Times.
  5. Gabi Duncan (12 August 2014). "Hook Actor Dante Basco Remembers Robin Williams With Touching Video and Letter". E!. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  6. Ada Tsend (28 June 2017). "Remember Rufio in 'Hook'? The actor is trying to keep his cult character's legacy alive". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  7. Oller, Jacob (2020-07-10). "Avatar: The Last Airbender's Dante Basco on 'tango' of doing live, audience-driven Twitch show". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  8. Talia Baugnon (30 September 2014). "Dante Basco talks Hollywood at LMU". Los Angeles Loyolan. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  9. Christopher John Farley (19 Jun 2012). "'The Legend of Korra' Creators Preview the Season Finale and as Karate Kid In Justice League Trapped In Time". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  10. Terry Kelleher (29 April 1997). "Picks and Pans Review: Riot". People. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  11. Achievement Hunter [@AchievementHunt] (15 March 2016). "We're excited to have @dantebasco visiting to record some Let's Plays with us!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. Brian Chard [@bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "Huge thanks to the stellar MKX voice actors: Troy @TroyBakerVA (Shinnok/EBlack/Fujin), Ronald M. Banks (Quan Chi); Ashly Burch (Cassie)..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
    Brian Chard [@bcharred] (April 14, 2015). "Danielle Nicolet (Jacqui/Sareena); Fred Tatasciore (Tremor); and Grey DeLisle and Dante Basco with some extra VO help. You're all amazing!" (Tweet). Retrieved April 21, 2015 – via Twitter.
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