Danny Dias (c. 1983 – June 4, 2017) was an American activist and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

personality. Dias starred on season 13 of

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

Road Rules ''Road Rules'' is an MTV reality show that was a sister show of the network's flagship reality show, ''The Real World''. The series debuted on July 19, 1995, and ended on May 9, 2007. This allowed ''Road Rules'' a total of 14 seasons and 12 year ...

'', in 2004. In 2005, he competed on season 11 of ''

Real World/Road Rules Challenge ''The Challenge'' (originally known as ''Road Rules: All Stars'', followed by ''Real World/Road Rules Challenge'') is a reality competition show on MTV that is spun off from two of the network's reality shows, '' The Real World'' and ''Road ...

''. He later co-founded an AIDS research charity.

Early life and career

Dias was born and raised in

Linden, New Jersey Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, located about southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island, a borough of New York City, across the Arthur Kill ...

, where he attended Linden High School.Gacser, Ava
"Road: Living on the edge"
''

Home News Tribune The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a Daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of ...

'', July 4, 2004. Accessed December 25, 2023, via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. "I had a bit of a rough childhood, and I think that kind of 3 MTV out at 10 MTV viewers will find adds to my character," Dias says, referring to life growing up in Linden with his single mother. As a Linden High School student, he played flute in the marching band and sang in the choir. After a two-year stint at Westminster Choir College and some time at Seton Hall University, he's a few semesters shy of graduating college." He majored in music education at

Westminster Choir College Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's Westminster College of the Arts, the college under which the historic institution has b ...

, a music conservatory affiliated with

Rider University Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. It consists of four academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Human Services, and West ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

, which he attended from 2001 to 2003, and then continued his undergraduate education at

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...

. Dias, who was openly gay, was cast in season 13 of MTV's ''Road Rules'' while he was still attending college. '' Road Rules: X-Treme'', which was filmed in an RV in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, aired in 2004. The season cast included Dias, as well as Derrick Kosinski, Jodi Weatherton, Ibis Nieves, Kina Dean, and Patrick Maloney. However, Dias was voted out in Episode 6 as a punishment for losing a mission and was replaced by Nick Haggart. Dias returned to MTV for '' Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet 2'', his

Challenge Challenge may refer to: * Voter challenging or caging, a method of challenging the registration status of voters * Euphemism for disability * Peremptory challenge, a dismissal of potential jurors from jury duty Places Geography *Challenge, C ...

debut, which aired from 2005 to 2006. He was eliminated from the competition by Alton Williams from ''The Real World Las Vegas'' after four episodes. Following his time on ''

'', Dias studied acting and worked in

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

. He also become an AIDS activist and co-founded the research charity, Generation Cure.

Death

Dias was found unconscious at his

Flushing Avenue Flushing Avenue is a street running through northern Brooklyn and western Queens, beginning at Nassau Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and ending at Grand Avenue in Maspeth. It divides the neighborhood of Williamsburg from Clinton Hill an ...

apartment in

Bushwick, Brooklyn Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

, on June 4, 2017, at the age of 34. Friends had reportedly not reached him for two days. He was pronounced dead by authorities at approximately 5 p.m., though a cause of death was initially unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dias, Danny 1980s births 2017 deaths Road Rules cast members American HIV/AIDS activists LGBT people from New Jersey LGBT people from New York (state) Linden High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Linden, New Jersey People from Bushwick, Brooklyn Seton Hall University alumni Westminster Choir College alumni Participants in American reality television series 21st-century American LGBT people