Y'lan Noel (born August 19, 1988) is an American

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. ...

. He is known for portraying Daniel King in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, 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 based a ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

Insecure Insecure may refer to: * Lack of security, in an objective sense: ** Risk ** Data security ** Computer security * Food insecurity * Insecurity (emotion), lack of confidence or self esteem Media * ''Insecure'' (TV series), a television series on ...

'' (2016–2018), and the lead role of Dmitri Cimber in the

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

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 fil ...

'' (2018). For his role as Troy Marshall in the video game '' Call of Duty: Black Ops 6'', Noel was nominated for the

British Academy Games Award for Performer in a Leading Role The British Academy Video Games Award for Performer in a Leading Role is an award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in honour of the best leading performance featured in a game "from voice artistry throu ...

Early life

Noel was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He was further raised in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

until his family moved to

Decatur, Georgia Decatur () is a city and the county seat of DeKalb County, Georgia, DeKalb County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, th ...

. He is of

Afro-Panamanian Afro-Panamanians are Panamanians of African descent. The population can be mainly broken into two categories: "Afro-Colonials", those descended from slaves brought to Panama during the colonial period; and "Afro-Antilleans", West Indian immigran ...

descent. He began attending

Morehouse College Morehouse College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Men's colleges in the United States, men's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, ...

and transferred to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. 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, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch i ...

until he was called away to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Noel is a member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...

fraternity.

Career

In 2015, Noel landed the role of Daniel King on ''

''. 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'', firs ...

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

Lee Daniels Lee Daniels (born December 24, 1959) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He made his directorial film debut with ''Shadowboxer'' (2005), followed by ''Precious (film), Precious'' (2009) which earned him Academy Award nomin ...

Personal life

Noel is a member of

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

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