Life and Career
Dante Basco is a Filipino American that was 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 in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, as Rufio, the charismatic red-stripe-haired leader of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan's absence. The punk band Rufio is 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 Naked Brown Men, a sitcom. He played a gay teenager in the 1999 film, But I'm A Cheerleader. He starred as Ramos in the 2006 film Take the Lead alongside Antonio Banderas, where he break-danced as well as performed ballroom dance. 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 animated television series: Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long. He also voiced Matt in the short-lived animated series Zevo-3. He provided several voices in the video game Saints Row. He is the voice of 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. He provided the male youth voice for the MMORPG game Aion: Tower of Eternity.
Recently he voiced General Iroh, the grandson of Fire Lord Zuko, in The Legend of Korra, the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. His likness 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 .
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