Dante Basco (b. 1975)
Filed under the name Dante · July 8, 2026
Dante Basco is a name that hits different generations completely differently — either you know him as one of the Lost Boys from Hook, or you know him as the voice of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and there's a whole demographic split depending on which decade you grew up in. Voice acting specifically is a skill I have zero of and enormous respect for, since you're building an entire character's emotional arc using only your voice while some animator does the actual face acting for you afterward — that's like doing standup with the lights off and somehow still landing every joke through tone alone. Being memorable enough in two totally different eras and two totally different mediums, live-action as a kid and animated voice work as an adult, means the guy has actual range, not just one lucky role that got rewatched a lot. My comedy-writer friends who grew up on Avatar bring up Zuko unprompted more than is strictly normal, honestly, which is its own kind of legacy.