Dante Basco | Rufio to Zuko: Navigating Hollywood as an Asian American Actor

Actor Dante Basco is a 30+ year Filipino Asian-American Hollywood veteran, best known as Prince ZUKO from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and RUFIO, the leader of the Lost Boys, in Stephen Spielberg’s “HOOK” where he starred alongside Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, and Dustin Hoffman. He shares his perspective on the business of acting, competing, recognizing greatness, staying creative, and more. In addition to Zuko and Rufio, Dante Basco is also known for the title role in American Dragon: Jake Long. Other TV and film credits include The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Entourage, Moesha, Hawaii Five-0, The Perfect Weapon, BikerBoyz, and The Head Thieves, to name a few. An original hip hop artist, Dante, and his brothers gained local notoriety in the California Bay Area as an 80’s breakdancing group before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Earlier this year, Dante released his book, "From Rufio to Zuko,” a personal memoir that chronicles the stories from his life as a pioneering Asian American actor. Get it here: ▶︎ https://amzn.to/31Uo9OF At the beginning of today’s conversation, Dante mentioned a film we worked on together a few years ago, but we never came back to discuss it. So here’s a quick summary: In 2017, Dante and I worked on a feature film project, The Head Thieves. It starred Dante & Dion Basco and EP Mickey Gooch, and I was a producer with Director/Writer Mike Hermosa. We had an amazing cast and crew and the experience was extraordinary. A fun fact is that every crew member on location had a cameo in the movie. We even created a music video starring the entire cast and crew and friends. The film won six festival awards, including two for Best Feature Film. ▶️ SUBSCRIBE to Hollywood Real with Jay Menez on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, Amazon, Audible, etc at http://hollywoodreal.com ______________________________ Connect with Dante here: Instagram |   / dantebasco   Facebook |   / officialdantebasco   Twitter |   / dantebasco   TikTok |   / dante   YouTube |    / thedantebasco   IMDb | https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002364/ #DanteBasco #Rufio #HollywoodReal #JayMenez ______________________________ Connect with Jay Menez:  Instagram |   / jaymeneztv    Twitter |   / thejaymenez   Facebook |   / jaymeneztv   LinkedIn |   / jaymenez    IMDb | http://www.imdb.me/jaymenez Website | https://jaymenez.com _____________________________ More Hollywood Real Interviews: Rich Ting Interview | "Bolo" in Bruce Lee's Warrior on HBO Max ▶︎    • Rich Ting Interview | How a Yale Lawyer Be...   Michelle Waterson Interview | UFC’s Karate Hottie: Talk Yourself Into a Winning Mindset ▶︎    • Michelle Waterson Interview | UFC's Karate...   Mark Dacascos Interview | John Wick 3, Hawaii 5-0, and Iron Chef America ▶︎    • Mark Dacascos Interview | Becoming Hollywo...   Mike Chat Interview | Power Ranger, Action Director, and 7-Time World Champion  ▶︎   • Mike Chat Interview | How the 7-Time World...   More Dante Basco: ▶︎ He’s the Actor Behind Zuko, Rufio and So Many More | Great Big Story    • He’s the Actor Behind Zuko, Rufio and So M...