Celebrated Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) alumni family Dante Basco, Darion Basco and Dionysio “Dion” Basco, discussed their journeys as actors and the value of arts education during a special virtual master class for students at OCSA as part of the 2020-2021 Master Artist Series.
The brothers started their 35-year-career in the Bay Area when their mother began encouraging them to try a variety of extracurricular activities, including tap dancing, gymnastics, karate, and later, break dancing. They even studied and performed with the San Francisco Ballet Company.
As break dancers, Dante, Darion and Dion began to receive notoriety in their community. Seeing where their talents were taking them, their mother asked each of them if they were interested in pursuing the arts even further in a new place.
“At that time in our life, our mom came to us individually and asked if we wanted to take the jump from being fish in this pond of what the Bay Area art scene is, and jump into the ocean and join Hollywood,” Dante said.
In agreement, the brothers moved to Southern California, where they would continue to explore their artistic passions. This move also led them to a lifelong education in acting and the arts, including their high school experience at OCSA.
Dante, Darion and Dion said art and education were essential to giving them direction in their lives. They said art kept them out of trouble and provided them with essential knowledge about the industry at a young age.
“It’s the same thing as Harry Potter going to Hogwarts and finding out he’s a wizard … it’s a whole ‘nother universe of what is possible, what is valued. And the things that we make up out of nothing — whether it be a song, a movie, a poem — is nothing short of magic,” Dante said.
After kicking off their careers, Dante, Darion and Dion all achieved their fair share of success: Dante is a producer, director and actor who played the notable “Hook” character Rufio and later voiced the beloved Zuko in “Avatar: The Last Airbender”; Actor and Producer Darion landed a role in the 90s parody film “The Brady Bunch Movie” and has more recently been seen in “Cesar Chavez,” as well as a variety of television shows; Dion is an actor and producer who can be seen in “Dahmer” and “The Head Thieves.” He also played Alberto "Al" Ramos on the NBC Saturday morning sitcom, “City Guys.”
Today, they find themselves doing their part to pave the way for up-and-coming Asian American actors, helping to create new opportunities in the industry. Dante described their efforts ranging from producing to developing new projects for Asian American actors.
The brothers’ most recent project, “The Fabulous Filipino Brothers,” premiered at a virtual South by Southwest film festival in March. The film was written by Dante, Darion, Dion and their sister Arianna, and was also Dante’s directorial debut.
To learn more about Dante, Darion and Dion’s careers, their advice for young actors and their new film, watch the full master class here.