Daniel de Bourg ( ; born 13 April 1976) is an English

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Early life and influences

Originally from

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. By the time de Bourg was eleven, he was offered a full scholarship to study at the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...

after being spotted by talent scouts, and graduating at the top of his class with his final solo performance. Although dance was his primary interest, as a teen he was also fronting bands. He left school when given the opportunity to dance for the

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

, performing as a featured dancer all over the world. It was at the suggestion of a friend that heard him singing that de Bourg found himself in the position for a career in music.Demalon, Tom
Biography: Daniel Debourg
"AllMusic.com". Retrieved 16 September 2013.

Music career

Influenced by artists such as Prince and Stevie Wonder, de Bourg did not take to a singing career straight away. Dedicated to dance, de Bourg's early interest in singing was rediscovered after a knee injury caused some time out from his dance career.Ray, Ian. (15 November 2007
Interview: Daniel DeBourg
''Peterborough Evening Telegraph''. Retrieved 4 January 2012. de Bourg turned his hand to songwriting; recorded by singer

Jamelia Jamelia Niela Davis (born 11 January 1981) is a British singer, actress and television personality. Her three studio albums each peaked inside the Top 40 and they spawned eight top-10 singles. In addition, Jamelia has won four MOBO Awards, a Q ...

in 2000, his song "Money" reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart., p.265 Remembering de Bourg's musical talents, he was encouraged by a friend to create several demos of his own singing. These attracted the interest of DreamWorks scout

Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...

. de Bourg was introduced to then in-house producers

Tim & Bob Tim & Bob (Tim Kelley and Bob Robinson), also known as Funktwons, were an American songwriting and production duo from Peoria, Illinois. The duo has been credited on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top ten-singles "Thong Song" by Si ...

and subsequently signed to the label and the duo produced his debut album, '' Tell the World''. The high-production album, released in 2002, launched the single "

I Need an Angel "I Need an Angel" is a song by singer Daniel DeBourg released on his '' Tell the World'' album in 2002, that made number 30 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The song was produced and written by R. Kelly. A version performe ...

", which hit number 30 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. In 2008, UK artist

DJ Ironik James Christian Charters (born 18 January 1988), better known as Ironik (formerly as DJ Ironik), is a British musician, DJ and rapper. His genre of music varies from hip hop, grime, R&B and UK garage. DJ Ironik was born in London. DJ Ironik ...

presented de Bourg on his album, ''No Point in Wasting Tears''. In 2010, ''The DDB Mixtape Vol. 1: The Prelude'', a mixture of de Bourg's most popular covers and original material, received a nomination for 'Best R&B Mixtape 2010' and went on to win the award at The Official Mixtape Awards in early 2011. He went on to win the same accolade another two years in a row with 'The DDB Mixtape Vol. 2 : The Bridge' in 2011 and 'Outro' in 2012. In 2013, Daniel released his album, ''London Bread''. featuring production from Drake and Lil Wayne hit maker, Boi-1da. The album hit the top 20 on iTunes in 21 countries in its first week of release. His YouTube channel, that envelops a mix of his cover songs has grown to over 260,000 subscribers and close to 50 million views.

Acting career

In 2015, de Bourg signed with a TV, film and stage agent in London, and was cast in the Broadway transfer of Disney's ''Aladdin'' that opened at the

Prince Edward Theatre The Prince Edward Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Old Compton Street, just north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster, London. History The theatre was designed in 1930 by Edward A. Stone, with an interior designed by Mar ...

in the West End in London, in 2016. He went on to play the principle role of Kassim from 2017 - 2019. In 2020 de Bourg was cast in the original cast in the West End of Pretty Woman the Musical at The Piccadilly Theatre covering both the leading role as Edward and the supporting lead role as Stucky. Daniel then moved into screen acting and was cast by

Donald Glover Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his musical stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. While he studied at New York University and after working in Derrick ...

in his US series '

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

' in early 2021, appearing in the 3rd series as a poker-playing German millionaire, Yonathan. Daniel was then cast by Hollywood director

Martin Campbell Martin Campbell (born 24 October 1943) is a New Zealand film and television director and producer. He is best known for his works in the Action film, action and thriller film genres, including the James Bond in film, James Bond films ''GoldenE ...

in his action thriller, ''

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

'' starring

Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Liam Neeson, several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, BAFT ...

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. List of awards and nominations received by Guy Pearce, His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy Film Aw ...

and

Monica Bellucci Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model who began her career as a fashion model before working in Italian, American, and French films. She has an eclectic filmography in a range of genres and langua ...

. De Bourg stars as cut-throat lawyer Willam Borden. De Bourg has been filming in Morocco with October Films for their new TV series ''Colosseum'' in the lead role of ''Haterius'' and features in season 2 of ''

Whitstable Pearl ''Whitstable Pearl'' is a British crime drama television series broadcast and produced by Acorn TV, based on the ''Whitstable Pearl'' novels by Julie Wassmer. It stars Kerry Godliman as Pearl Nolan, who, as well as being a private detective, ru ...

'' as troubled pilot ''Noah''.

Filmography

Film

Discography

Studio albums

* 2002: '' Tell the World'' * 2013: ''London Bread'' * 2014: "X-Play Pt. One" * 2015: "X-Play Pt. Two"

Mixtapes

* 2010: ''The DDB Mixtape Volume 1 - The Prelude'' * 2011: ''The DDB Mixtape Volume 2 - The Bridge'' * 2012: ''The DDB Mixtape Volume 3 - Outro'' * 2013: '' Overdrive''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:de Bourg, Daniel Living people 1982 births Actors educated at the Royal Ballet School English male singers English pop singers English record producers English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters Male actors from Chelmsford The X Factor (British TV series) contestants English people of Belgian descent English soul singers