Rafael Santiago Casal (born August 8, 1985) is an American writer, rapper, actor, producer, director, and show runner originally from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. He is also an online creator of music, poetry, web shorts, and political commentary.

Early life

Casal grew up in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

and

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He was expelled from Berkeley High School after two years and earned his diploma through an alternative independent study program. Casal is of Irish, Spanish, and Cuban descent.

Career

Poetry

When he was 18, Casal appeared on HBO's ''

Def Poetry Jam ''Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry'', better known as simply ''Def Poetry Jam'' or ''Def Poetry'', is a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by establ ...

''. At the same time, he was touring, performing, and teaching nationwide with YouthSpeaks. He is a two time Brave New Voice Poetry Slam Festival champion. Casal spent three years serving as creative director at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

's First Wave Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Learning Community while earning his degree at night.

Music

In July 2010, Casal released ''The BAY BOY Mixtape'' with

Daveed Diggs Daveed Daniele Diggs (born January 24, 1982) is an American actor, rapper, and singer-songwriter. He is the vocalist of the experimental hip hop group Clipping, and in 2015, he originated the dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jeffer ...

under the Getback Productions crew the pair co-founded with

Chinaka Hodge Chinaka Hodge (born 1984/1985) is an American poet, educator, playwright and screenwriter. She has received national recognition for her publications, especially her artistic work on gentrification. Biography Chinaka Hodge was born in Oakland ...

. Casal has also released several solo mixtapes online: ''As Good As Your Word'' (2008), ''Monster'' (2009) and ''Mean Ones'' (2012). In 2018, Casal and Diggs released the ''Collin'' and ''Miles'' EPs to accompany their film ''

Blindspotting ''Blindspotting'' is a 2018 American comedy-drama film written by, produced by and starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Carlos López Estrada directs while Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Ethan Embry, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Utkarsh A ...

''.

Film and television

In 2018, Casal and best friend

released their movie, ''

''. The pair wrote, produced, and starred in the film, which uses verse to tell the story of the town of

. Casal has also appeared in small supporting roles in '' Bad Education'', '' The Good Lord Bird'', and the second revival of ''

Are You Afraid of the Dark? ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a horror anthology television series. The original series aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1996; the pilot episode aired respectively on YTV and Nickelodeon in 1990 and 1991. It led to two revival series, w ...

'' Recently, Casal made a brief appearance in the Netflix documentary series, ''Amend: The Fight for America''. In 2020, it was confirmed that ''Blindspotting'' would be adapted as a comedy-drama series of the same name, with Casal serving as co-writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner, as well as reprising his role as Miles. The series was picked up by

Lionsgate Television Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian–American entertainment company. History The company was established in July 1997 as Lions Gate Television, Inc. with the establishment of Lionsgate Films. It acq ...

and had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on June 11, 2021. It became available for streaming on June 13, 2021 on Starz and

StarzPlay Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consis ...

. In October 2021, it was announced that Starz had renewed the series for a second season. It is set to premiere at SXSW in March 2023 and will air on Starz on April 14, 2023.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casal, Rafael 21st-century American male actors American people of Cuban descent Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni Living people Male actors from the San Francisco Bay Area Male actors from Berkeley, California Male actors from Oakland, California Musicians from Oakland, California People from Berkeley, California Rappers from the San Francisco Bay Area American spoken word poets American male poets 1985 births Hispanic and Latino American actors