Rafael Santiago Casal (born August 8, 1985) is an American writer, rapper, actor, producer, director, and showrunner originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an online creator of music, poetry, web shorts, and political commentary.
When he was 18, Casal appeared on 3 seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. At the same time, he was touring, performing, and teaching nationwide with YouthSpeaks. He is a two time Brave New Voice Poetry Slam Festival champion. Casal spent three years designing and serving as creative director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's First Wave[4] Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Learning Community while earning his degree at night.[2]
In July 2010, Casal released The BAY BOY Mixtape with Daveed Diggs under the Getback Productions crew the pair co-founded with Chinaka Hodge. Casal has also released several solo mixtapes online: As Good As Your Word (2008), Monster (2009) and Mean Ones (2012).[2] In 2018, Casal and Diggs released the Collin and Miles EPs to accompany their film Blindspotting.[5]
Casal co-founded the BARS workshop at the Public Theater in NYC with Daveed Diggs,[6] as a "space for artists to investigate and develop their craft at the intersection of contemporary verse and theatre." The program is in its 5th season.
In 2018, Casal and best friend Daveed Diggs released their movie, Blindspotting. The pair wrote, produced, and starred in the film, which uses verse to tell the story of the town of Oakland, California.[7] 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? Recently, Casal made a brief appearance in the Netflix documentary series, Amend: The Fight for America.
In 2020, it was confirmed that Blindspotting would be adapted as a comedy-drama series of the same name, with Casal serving as co-writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner, as well as reprising his role as Miles.[8] The series was picked up by Lionsgate Television and had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11, 2021. It became available for streaming on June 13, 2021 on Starz and StarzPlay.[citation needed] In October 2021, it was announced that Starz had renewed the series for a second season. It premiered at SXSW in March 2023 and aired on Starz on April 14, 2023.[9] Blindspotting was cancelled by Starz in September 2023.
