Dante Basco

Danté Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer most famous for playing Rufio in the 1991 Peter Pan based film Hook, Zuko in the Nickelodeon series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and Jake Long from the Disney series "American Dragon: Jake Long".

Life and career
Dante Basco, a Filipino American, was born in Pittsburg, California. He is the brother of Darion Basco, Derek Basco, Dion Basco and Arianna Basco. In his early years, he was part of the Streat Freaks (sic) breakdancing crew. When he got into acting, he started taking on minor roles in television. He later appeared in his best known role in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, as Rufio, the charismatic red-stripe-haired leader of the Lost Boys. The punk band Rufio is named after this character.

He had guest roles on television shows The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and had a recurring role on Moesha. He portrayed characters of different Asian ethnicities, but never Filipino. He did however, star in the independent film The Debut, in which he portrayed a Filipino-American alongside his three brothers and sister. He and all of his brothers starred in Naked Brown Men, a sitcom stylized show. More recently, he has provided the voices for Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long. He starred as Ramos in the 2006 film Take the Lead alongside Antonio Banderas, where he break-danced as well as performed ballroom dance. In many films he hip-hop dances, just as he did in a Verizon Wireless commercial as well as rapping and breaking in a Sprite commercial. He produced and co-starred in a music video parody of the song "Rehab" that is called "Wiihab". He played a gay teenager in the 1999 film, But I'm A Cheerleader. He provided several voices in the video game Saints Row. He is the voice of Shingo in the video games Skate, Skate 2 and Skate 3. He voiced Seeing Farther in the video game Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. He provided the male youth voice for the MMORPG game Aion: Tower of Eternity.

Basco plays basketball in the NBAE (NBA Entertainment league).