Daniel was born in the barrios of east Los Angeles. His family eventually "moved on up" to the west side. It was while living there in "Da Hood" of south-central LA that Daniel really began to cultivate his theatre abilities. His time at 32nd Street UCS Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts provided a time for him to play percussion, cultivate song, and dance with Tanza, and international folk dance troupe.
His pre-High School years also included 4 years singing with the Los Angeles Children's Chorus. With LACC, Daniel performed in venues which include the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic and the Master Choral, Dorthy Chandller Pavillion and Amahnson Theatres in the LA County Music Center, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, coutless other Southern California locations. Tours to San Fransisco, Colorado, Italy, and Austrailia allowed performaces at locations such as the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, Italy, St. Peter's Basillica in Rome, Italy, and the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.
In high school, Daniel continued performing. His time at Hollywood High School Performing Arts Magnet gave him the opportunity to learn tap dance, saxaphone, trumpet, and trombone, to cultivate song and acting, and to meet his girlfriend, Yanika. His main stage roles at HHS were Baby John in West Side Story, Lenny in Niel Simon's Rumours, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Herr Schultz in Cabaret, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, Jim Casey in Grapes of Wrath, Frederick in Noises Off, and Albert in Bye Bye Birdie.
College brought a new world of performing for Daniel. His involvement has been exceptional here at UCSB. Though his only purely acting experiacne was in an Original One Act play in Spring of 2002, he has not been away from the audence at all. His current performance based endevours include Naked Voices-- UCSB's co-ed acapella ensemble, Iorona te Otea-- UCSB's Polynesian Dance Troupe, the UCSB Chamber Chior, Opera Scenes and Production, and private voice instuction. He is the founder of the Tappers Anonymous Program--UCSB's only venue for Tap Dance, and Brothas from Otha Mothas-- UCSB's all male acappella group. He's very estatic to help co-found Destination Theatre and is very exctied to see how things turn out.
