Y'lan Noel (born May 21, 1988) is a Panamanian-American actor. He is known for portraying Daniel King in the

HBO 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 ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed ...

'' Insecure'' (2016–2018). He played the lead role in the 2018

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

The First Purge ''The First Purge'' is a 2018 American dystopian action horror film directed by Gerard McMurray and starring Y'lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, and Steve Harris. Written and co-executive produced by James DeMonaco, it is the first film o ...

''.

Early life

Noel was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. He was further raised in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

until his family moved to

Stone Mountain, Georgia Stone Mountain is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 6,703 according to the 2020 US Census. Stone Mountain is in the eastern part of DeKalb County and is a suburb of Atlanta that encompasses nearly 1.7 square mil ...

. He is of

Afro-Panamanian Afro-Panamanians are Panamanians of African descent. The Afro-Panamanian population can be mainly broken into one of two categories "Afro-Colonials", Afro-Panamanians descended from slaves brought to Panama during the colonial period, and "Afro-A ...

descent. He began attending

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliation ...

and transferred to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. He continued through

Tisch School of Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ...

until he was called away to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Career

In 2015, Noel landed the role of Daniel King on '' Insecure''. Noel described Daniel as being the opposite of him, "I was nervous about playing Daniel. I love being around women...but I’ve always felt a bit awkward, well, insecure, around women I’ve had crushes on. Daniel doesn’t seem to have any of that awkwardness... Daniel’s extremely confident and goes after what he wants." In 2018, Noel played the lead role of Dmitri in ''

'', which he considered very challenging, having said, "I feel like I started to actually physiologically relate to these fictional characters and what they would have to experience if they were to go about surviving the Purge." In 2021, Noel was reported as cast in the lead for a television pilot based on the

Sam Greenlee Samuel Eldred Greenlee, Jr. (July 13, 1930 – May 19, 2014)Margaret Busby"Sam Greenlee obituary" ''The Guardian'', June 2, 2014. was an American writer of fiction and poetry. He is best known for his novel ''The Spook Who Sat By The Door (novel), ...

novel '' The Spook Who Sat By The Door'', to be produced by

Lee Daniels Lee Daniels (born December 24, 1959) is an American film and television producer, director and screenwriter. His first producer credit was ''Monster's Ball'' (2001), for which Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress, making Daniels ...

Personal life

Noel is a member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Y'lan 1988 births 21st-century American male actors African-American male actors Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni Living people Male actors from New York City People from Brooklyn People from Queens, New York Tisch School of the Arts alumni