Dante Basco

Dante Roman Basco (born August 29, 1975) 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 voicing the titular main protagonist of American Dragon: Jake Long and Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Some other roles he provided voices for include Zuko's grandson General Iroh II in The Legend of Korra, Quoc Wong in The Proud Family, Jingmei in The Boondocks, Tuck in Generator Rex, Scorpion in Ultimate Spider-Man, and Jai Kell in Star Wars Rebels.

Basco was born in Pittsburg, California, and raised in Cerritos and Paramount, California.

He has four siblings, including actor Dion Basco.

In the mid-1980s, he and his brothers formed a breakdancing crew and worked as street performers.

His breakthrough 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.

He attended Orange County High School of the Arts in the Music and Theatre Conservatory and graduated in 1993.

He began his acting career with minor television roles.

In 1998, Dante Basco along with Shihan Van Clief, Devin “Poetri” Smith, and Gimel Hooper created the Da Poetry Club.

It is a place where people could come together and share their family history or origins through poetry.

The club continues to run till this day.

However, in the early 2000s there was still little representation of mixed American or foreign people.

This is also true in one of Dante Basco’s most popular works, Avatar the Last Airbender.

The setting of Avatar the Last Airbender is based on Asian culture as it contains many martial arts and spiritual beliefs commonly seen throughout Asia.

While, Avatar the Last Airbender is critically acclaimed as one of the best animated shows of all time, many people have problems with the predominately white cast.

For a show that was based so heavily on Asian culture, fans were disappointed to see the lack of representation in the cast.

However, the exception was Dante Basco.

The character Zuko in Avatar the Last Airbender was quickly beloved by all and the voice behind him gained interest as well.

In a world where white people dominated the industry, Basco showed that there is talent outside of the mostly white scene of Hollywood.

In 2021, Basco co-hosted a podcast with Janet Varney, the voice of Korra in The Legend of Korra, called Avatar: Braving the Elements. This podcast was created in collaboration with Nickelodeon when Avatar the Last Airbender was released on Netflix.

In this podcast, Basco and Varney would talk about the story of Avatar the Last Airbender and go into further detail about the plot, characters, and world building.

In 2017, Basco produced a Kickstarter-funded short film, Bangarang, about the character Rufio.

The film was directed by Jonah Feingold.

Basco streams gameplay on Twitch.

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

Avatar: Braving the Elements, an official Nickelodeon companion podcast to Avatar: The Last Airbender, premiered on June 22, 2021.

Basco and Janet Varney (voice of Korra) host the podcast, which follows them as they rewatch the series, discuss each episode's key moments and behind-the scenes information, and feature special guests.

Basco has done voice acting for many animated productions, including Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Jai Kell in Star Wars Rebels and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long.

He also voice acted Kwok Wong in The Proud Family, and Master Cheddar in S4 E22 of We Bear Bears titled Baby Orphan Ninja Bears.

He voiced Matt Martin/Kewl Breeze in the short-lived animated series Zevo-3, and voiced General Iroh, Zuko's grandson, in ''The Legend of Korra.

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He contributed additional voices for Aion, Mortal Kombat X, and Saints Row.

He also voiced Shingo in the Skate series and Seeing Farther in the Call of Juarez series.

On April 19, 2023, Basco became engaged to Uyghur actress and television host Alice Rehemutula.

They later married in September 2023 in China.

Basco's impact on Asian-American culture through his roles in Hollywood and involvement with the community has inspired many young Asian-American people.

As one of the only Asian-American faces in Hollywood throughout the 90s, Basco quickly became a leading figure in the Asian-American movement.

In one of his earliest films, Hook, Basco was able to show his talent as an actor and gained interest from people throughout Hollywood.

This was the start of the Asian-American movement.