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

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

Early life

Casal grew up in Berkeley and Oakland, California. He was expelled from Berkeley High School after two years but earned his diploma through an alternative independent study program. Casal later designed and served as creative director of the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

’
First Wave
Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Program while earning a sociology degree at night. Casal has Irish ancestry on his mother's side, and Spanish and Cuban on his father's side.

Career

Poetry

At 18, Casal appeared on 3 seasons of HBO's ''

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

'' while touring, performing, and teaching nationwide with YouthSpeaks. He is a two-time Brave New Voice Poetry Slam Festival champion.

Music

Casal has released several mixtapes online, including ''As Good As Your Word'' (2008), ''Monster'' (2009), and ''Mean Ones'' (2012). He also collaborated with best friend

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 ...

and

Chinaka Hodge Chinaka Hodge (born 1984) 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, Califo ...

to release ''The Getback Mixtape, vol. 1'' (2007) and ''The BAY BOY Mixtape'' (2010) as the Getback Productions Crew. 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 and produced by Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. The film is directed by Carlos López Estrada (in his feature directorial debut), and Diggs and Casal star alongside Janina Gavank ...

''.

Theater

Casal and Diggs co-founded the BARS workshop at the

Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: A ...

in New York City. The workshops serve as a platform for artists to explore and enhance their craft by merging contemporary verse with theatre.

Film and television

In 2018, Casal and

released their movie, ''

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

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

. In 2020, the movie was adapted as a comedy-drama series of the same name. Casal reprised his role as Miles and served as co-writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner. The series premiered at the

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

on June 11, 2021, and began streaming on

Starz Starz (stylized in all caps as STARZ; pronounced "stars") is an American pay television network owned by Starz Entertainment, and is the flagship property of Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of what is now Starz Encore, ...

on June 13, 2021. Season 2 premiered at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

in March 2023 and began streaming on April 14, 2023. In September 2023, Blindspotting was cancelled. Casal has also appeared in 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 children's horror anthology television series created by D. J. MacHale and Ned Kandel. The original series aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from August 15, 1992 to February 3, 1996, and also o ...

'' In 2023, he appeared as X-5/Brad Wolfe in the second season of the series ''

Loki Loki is a Æsir, god in Norse mythology. He is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mythology), Laufey (a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to the goddess Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi (son of Lo ...

.''

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casal, Rafael 21st-century American male writers Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni Living people Rappers from Oakland, California Musicians from Berkeley, California American spoken word poets American male poets 1985 births Hispanic and Latino American actors