Daniel Breaker

Last updated
Daniel Breaker
Born (1980-06-02) June 2, 1980 (age 44)
Education Juilliard School (BFA)
Occupations
  • Actor
  • comedian
Years active2002–present
Spouse
(m. 2008)
Children2

Daniel Breaker (born June 2, 1980) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Donkey in Shrek the Musical .

Contents

Career

Beginning his career in 2002, immediately after graduating from Juilliard, Breaker has performed in Off-Broadway, London, and U.S. regional theatre productions. He performed in five plays at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. His first major role was the Youth, protagonist of the Off-Broadway premiere of Passing Strange , for which he won an Obie Award in 2008. He was then nominated for a Tony Award for the show's Broadway transfer, in which he again played the Youth; he also played this role in Spike Lee's filmed version of the musical.

One of his most recognizable roles was Donkey in the original Broadway production of Shrek the Musical , which ran from November 2008 through January 2010. He starred alongside long-time Broadway stars Brian d'Arcy James, Sutton Foster, John Tartaglia, and Christopher Sieber. For his portrayal, Breaker earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. [1] [2] His voice can be heard on the original cast recording of the show.

He has also appeared in the plays Well and Cymbeline . [3] In 2009, he co-hosted the Obie Awards. [4]

Breaker previously played Mafala Hatimbi in The Book of Mormon on Broadway. He also appeared as the King of Navarre in The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of the Love's Labour's Lost musical. [5] He played Aaron Burr in Hamilton in Chicago and joined the musical's Broadway cast. [6]

Breaker has also been a guest star on TV. [7] [8] Since 2021, he has been part of the supporting cast of the Peacock show Girls5Eva . Breaker starred as the Jester alongside his former Shrek the Musical co-star Sutton Foster in the 2024 Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress . [9] On January 9, 2025, it was announced that Breaker would take over the role of Hermes in the Broadway production of Hadestown starting February 18. [10]

Personal life

Breaker has been married to theatre director Kate Whoriskey since 2008. They have two children. [7] [11]

Stage credits

YearTitleRoleTheaterNotes
2003 Pericles PericlesRed Bull Theater
2004 Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine Agent Duva/Flow/Dealer/Addict #2/Ensemble Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway
2005 The Tempest Ariel Shakespeare Theatre Company
2006 Well Jim and others Longacre Theatre Broadway
2007 Passing Strange Youth The Public Theater Off-Broadway
2007–2008 Cymbeline Gentleman Lincoln Center Theatre Broadway
2008 Passing Strange Youth Belasco Theatre Broadway
2008–2010 Shrek the Musical Donkey Broadway Theatre Broadway
2011 By the Way, Meet Vera Stark Leroy Barksdale/Herb Forrester Second Stage Theater Off-Broadway
2012 The Performers Lee Longacre Theatre Broadway
2013 Love's Labour's Lost King Ferdinand of Navarre Delacorte Theater
2014–2017 The Book of Mormon Mafala Hatimbi Eugene O'Neill Theatre Broadway
2017 Hamilton Aaron Burr PrivateBank Theatre
2017–2020 Richard Rodgers Theatre Broadway
2024 Judgment Day Father Michael Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Once Upon a Mattress The Jester Hudson Theatre Broadway
2024–2025 Ahmanson Theatre Los Angeles
2025 Hadestown Hermes Walter Kerr Theatre Broadway

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
2011 Limitless Campaign Manager
2012 Red Hook Summer Cliff
2013 He's Way More Famous Than You EMT
Shrek the Musical Donkey
2015 Sisters Airport Bartender

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2002 Law & Order: Criminal Intent ZachEpisode: "The Pilgrim"
2009 Great Performances YouthEpisode: "Passing Strange"
2011 Unforgettable MarkEpisode: "Lost Things"
2014 Submissions Only Dean Klausen5 episodes
2014–2016 Mozart in the Jungle Virgil16 episodes
2017–2018 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Agent Dunleavy2 episodes
2020 Helpsters Artist AndrewEpisode: "Camper Cortez/Artist Andrew & Detective Dudley"
2020–2023 Billions Roger 'Scooter' Dunbar34 episodes
2021–2024 Girls5eva Scott12 episodes
2022 The Good Fight Randy Elkin5 episodes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Foster</span> American actress (born 1975)

Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Grease, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, The Music Man, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Once Upon a Mattress. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.

<i>Once Upon a Mattress</i> 1959 American musical comedy

Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway. The play was written as a humorous adaptation of the 1835 Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanine Tesori</span> American composer and musical arranger (born 1961)

Jeanine Tesori, known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson, is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and six Tony Award nominations. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award, and the 2023 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Kimberly Akimbo. She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Pendleton</span> American actor (born 1940)

Austin Campbell Pendleton is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André De Shields</span> American entertainer (born 1946)

André Robin De Shields is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer. He has received numerous accolades including an Emmy Award, Grammy Award, and Tony Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Borle</span> American actor (born 1973)

Christian Dominique Borle is an American actor and singer. He is a two-time Tony Award winner for his roles as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher and as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten!. Borle also originated the roles of Prince Herbert, et al. in Spamalot, Emmett in Legally Blonde, and Joe in Some Like It Hot on Broadway, earning Tony nominations for the latter two. He starred as Marvin in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos, which also earned him a Tony nomination. His first leading role on Broadway was Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie. He would later also star as Bert in Mary Poppins and Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He also portrayed Orin Scrivello in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Borle starred as Tom Levitt on the NBC musical-drama television series Smash and Vox in the adult animated black comedy musical series Hazbin Hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian d'Arcy James</span> American actor and musician

Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician. He is known primarily for his Broadway roles, including Shrek in Shrek the Musical, Nick Bottom in Something Rotten!, King George III in Hamilton, and The Baker in Into the Woods. He has received five Tony Award nominations for his work. On-screen, he is known for his recurring role as Andy Baker on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, Officer Krupke in West Side Story, and reporter Matt Carroll in Spotlight.

Tom Hewitt is an American actor and Broadway stage performer, and a native of Victor, Montana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Page</span> American actor and singer

John Patrick Page is an American actor, low bass singer, and playwright. Beginning his career in classical theatre and the works of Shakespeare, he originated the roles of the Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (2006), Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2011), and Hades in Hadestown (2019–2022), the last of which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Jue</span> American actor and singer (born 1963)

Francis Jue is an American actor and singer. Jue is known for his performances on Broadway, in national tours, off-Broadway and in regional theatre, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area and at The Muny in St. Louis. His roles in plays and musicals range from Shakespeare to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Disney to David Henry Hwang. He is also known for his recurring role on the TV series Madam Secretary (2014–2019).

Lillias White is an American actress and singer. She is particularly known for her performances in Broadway musicals. In 1989 she won an Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway musical Romance in Hard Times. In 1997 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for portraying Sonja in Cy Coleman's The Life. She was nominated for a Tony Award again in 2010 for her work as Funmilayo in Fela Kuti's Fela!.

<i>Shrek the Musical</i> 2008 musical by Jeanine Tesori & David Lindsay-Abraire

Shrek the Musical is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. It is based on the 2001 DreamWorks Animation film Shrek, along with elements of its sequels: Shrek 2, Shrek Forever After and William Steig's 1990 book Shrek!. After a trial run in Seattle, the original Broadway production opened in December 2008 and closed after a run of over 12 months in January 2010. It was followed by a tour of the United States which opened in 2010, and a re-vamped West End production from June 2011 to February 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Cromer</span> American actor and director

David Cromer is an American theatre director, and stage, film, and TV actor. He has received recognition for his work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in his native Chicago. Cromer has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including winning the Lucille Lortel Award and Obie Award for his direction of Our Town. He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his direction of The Adding Machine. In 2018, Cromer won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for The Band's Visit.

Kate Whoriskey is a freelance theatre director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Cody</span> American dancer and actress

Jennifer Cody is an American actress and dancer.

The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. It is considered a "memory play". The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Chavkin</span> American theatre director

Rachel Chavkin is an American stage director best known for directing the musicals Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 and Hadestown, receiving nominations for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for both and winning for Hadestown in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leigh Silverman</span> American director

Leigh Silverman is an American director for the stage, both off-Broadway and on Broadway. She was nominated for the 2014 and 2024 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the musicals Violet and Suffs, and the 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for the play From Up Here.

Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. Having studied at Cornell University and Juilliard School he became known for directing both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He has received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play, and nominations for four Drama Desk Awards.

<i>Hadestown</i> Musical by Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her.

References

  1. Miller, Winter (December 28, 2008). "Swamp Creatures Step Out". The New York Times . New York.
  2. Parker, Eloise (December 15, 2008). "Behind the scenes with Daniel Breaker at 'Shrek the Musical'". New York Daily News . Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  3. "Daniel Breaker". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on 2017-06-11.
  4. "Martha Plimpton and Daniel Breaker to Host 2009 Obie Awards". Broadway.com. March 17, 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09.
  5. "Daniel Breaker, Colin Donnell, Rebecca Naomi Jones & More Set for COMEDY OF ERRORS and LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST in the Park!". BroadwayWorld. April 24, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-04-27.
  6. Levitt, Hayley (March 10, 2019). "How Hamilton's Daniel Breaker Built a Burr for the Ages". TheaterMania. Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  7. 1 2 Bernardo, Melissa Rose (July 27, 2009). "Daniel Breaker on Fatherhood, Donkey-hood (in Shrek) and His Strange New Movie". Broadway.com .
  8. "Daniel Breaker". Playbill. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  9. Culwell-Block, Logan (July 8, 2024). "Ana Gasteyer Will Rule Over Once Upon a Mattress". Playbill. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  10. Wright, Joshua. "aniel Breaker & Merle Dandridge Will Join HADESTOWN on Broadway". Broadway World. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
  11. Fierberg, Ruthie (March 7, 2016). "If Daniel Breaker Weren't An Actor, He Would Be A..." Playbill .