Rafael Casal facts for kids

Rafael Santiago Casal (born August 8, 1985) is an American writer, rapper, producer, director, actor, musician, and showrunner. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is known for his creative work in many areas, including poetry, music, and film.

Early Life and Education

Rafael Casal grew up in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, California. He attended Berkeley High School for two years. After that, he finished his high school diploma through a special independent study program.

Later, Casal helped create a unique program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was called the First Wave Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Programme. He was its creative director, helping young artists learn about spoken word poetry and hip hop. At the same time, he studied sociology at night.

Rafael Casal has a diverse family background. His mother's family is from Ireland, and his father's family is from Spain and Cuba.

Creative Career

Rafael Casal has worked in many different creative fields. He is known for his poetry, music, theater, and film projects.

Poetry and Spoken Word

When he was 18, Rafael Casal appeared on a TV show called Def Poetry Jam on HBO. He was on the show for three seasons. During this time, he also traveled around the country. He performed his poetry and taught workshops with a group called YouthSpeaks. He is also a two-time champion of the Brave New Voice Poetry Slam Festival. This is a big competition for young poets.

Music Projects

Rafael Casal has released several music collections online. These are called mixtapes. Some of his mixtapes include As Good As Your Word (2008), Monster (2009), and Mean Ones (2012).

He also worked with his good friend Daveed Diggs and Chinaka Hodge. Together, they released The Getback Mixtape, vol. 1 (2007) and The BAY BOY Mixtape (2010). They were known as the Getback Productions Crew.

In 2018, Casal and Diggs released two EPs (shorter music collections). These EPs, named Collin and Miles, were made to go along with their movie Blindspotting.

Theater Work

Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs started a special workshop called BARS. It is held at The Public Theater in New York City. This workshop helps artists explore and improve their skills. They learn how to combine modern poetry with theater performances.

Film and Television

In 2018, Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs released their movie, Blindspotting. They both wrote the story, helped produce the film, and starred in it. The movie uses a special style of verse (like poetry) to tell a story about Oakland, California.

In 2020, the movie Blindspotting was turned into a comedy-drama TV series. Rafael Casal played his character, Miles, again. He also worked as a co-writer, director, and executive producer for the show. This means he helped make many important decisions. The series first showed at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2021. It then started streaming on starz. The second season came out in 2023. In September 2023, the show was canceled.

Casal has also acted in other movies and TV shows. He appeared in Bad Education, The Good Lord Bird, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? In 2023, he played the character X-5/Brad Wolfe in the second season of the Marvel series Loki.

Filmography