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.
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’s 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 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 and Chinaka Hodge 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.
Theater
Casal and Diggs co-founded the BARS workshop at the Public Theater 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 Daveed Diggs released their movie, Blindspotting. The duo wrote, produced, and starred in the film, which uses verse to tell the story of Oakland.
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 on June 11, 2021, and began streaming on Starz on June 13, 2021. Season 2 premiered at SXSW 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? In 2023, he appeared as X-5/Brad Wolfe in the second season of the series Loki.
Filmography
References
