Ray Romeo Antonio is an American filmmaker, musician, and author.

Career

Early career

Romeo Antonio's early music career started in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

. His debut album, ''The Real Romeo'', was released in 1992 on

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

, with Antonio playing all instruments on the album. ''A Piece of Love Society'' was released in 1996 on

Festival Records Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...

/ BMG.

RomenMpire Records

Steve Lobel introduced Antonio to

Darryl McDaniels Darryl Matthews McDaniels (born May 31, 1964), better known by his stage name DMC, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the hip hop group Run-DMC, and is considered one of the pioneers of hip hop culture. Early life McDaniels grew ...

, one of the founding members of

Run-DMC Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of ...

, which led to Antonio producing McDaniels' solo album, ''

Checks Thugs and Rock n Roll ''Checks Thugs and Rock n Roll'' is the debut solo studio album by American musician Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels from hip hop group Run-DMC. It was released on March 14, 2006, through Romen Mpire/Rags 2 Riches Records. He was inspired to put out t ...

'', which was released on Romeo Antonio's RomenMpire Records on 28 March 2006.

As a film-maker

In 2006, Antonio executive produced the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-award-winning VH1 documentary, '' DMC: My Adoption Journey'', following Darryl McDaniels search for information about his early life and his birth parents. The Emmy Award was shared by Antonio, McDaniels,

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan Order of Canada, OC Order of British Columbia, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing ( ...

, Shawn Papazian, and Michael DeLorenzo. It aired on

CBS Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine television program that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original host ...

. In 2007 Antonio produced the TV pilot '' The Man'' written by

Anthony Zuiker Anthony E. Zuiker (pronounced ; born August 17, 1968) is an American television writer, television producer, and author. He is best known as the creator of ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. He produced all four editions of the CSI (franchise ...

and directed by

Simon West Simon Alexander West (born 1961) is an English film director and producer. He has primarily worked in the action genre, most notably as the director of the films ''Con Air'', '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'', '' The Mechanic'', and ''The Expendab ...

, starring

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, along ...

. In 2010 Antonio directed and co-wrote "Rollers" which won best drama at NYIFF. Antonio also produced "Pizza with Bullets" which won 7 film festival awards. Antonio also produced "Just Peck" starring Keir Gilchrist, Marcia Cross, Adam Arkin, and Brie Larson who went on to win the Academy Award for best actress in "Room". Antonio also produced the 2007 short film ''Lucifer''. In 2008, he was the Executive Producer of ''Trophy'', a TV drama distributed by

Home Box Office Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

and Peccadillo Pictures. In 2015 it was reported that Antonio had reached an agreement with the family of

Sam Cooke Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...

to make a biopic of the soul singer. Antonio also directed and produced a pilot for ''NashVegas'', a scripted reality show following five people in different stages of their music industry careers, combined with a public-vote songwriting competition.

Discography

Albums

*1997: ''Romeo's Gys/ Still Waters xplicit' * 2000: ''Swear Not By The Mood'' * 2001: ''Romeo's 245/ Aggravated Assault Explicit'' * 2010: ''Romeo's Backroom Story'' * 2012 ''Romeo's Unique xplicit'

Appearances on albums by other artists

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antonio, Romeo 1969 births American male writers American male composers 21st-century American composers American filmmakers Record producers from New York (state) Living people 21st-century American male musicians