Danny Hoch | |
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Hoch on the set of His & Hers
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Born |
Brooklyn, New York City, United States |
November 23, 1970
Occupation | Actor, writer, director, performance artist |
Years active | 1996-present |
Danny Hoch (born November 23, 1970) is an American actor, writer, director and performance artist. He has acted in larger roles in independent and art house movies and had a few small roles in mainstream Hollywood films, with increasing exposure as in 2007's We Own the Night. He is also known for his one man shows.
Two of his three one-man-shows, Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop and Some People, were published together in 1998. In both pieces he explores the multi-cultural (and multi-lingual) New York he grew up in, providing adept monologues in the languages of the people, Cuban Spanish, Bronx Dominican Spanish or Nuyorican, Jamaican Patois or Trinidadian English.
A prevailing theme in Hoch's work, within its spectrum of unification and deep similarities under superficial differences, is the power of hip hop. Naive or street-wise white youth believing or dreaming that they are black, African-American kids dreaming of making it as a rapper, a Cuban street vendor's love of Snoop Dogg.
Some People followed his first endeavor, Pot Melting, and was broadcast on HBO in the mid-90's, which granted Hoch more national exposure, allowing him to tour more cities to greater crowds. Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in 2000. Together, his three plays have won many awards, including two Obie Awards, a Sundance Writers Fellowship and the CalArts' Alpert Awards in the Arts in Theatre. In 2010 he won a Fellow award granted by United States Artists.