DAN GUERRERO began his multi-faceted career in New York where he moved from East Los Angeles at age twenty to pursue studies in musical theater. He performed off-Broadway, in regional theatre, summer stock and in musical revues at Manhattan’s most fabled cabarets including the Bon Soir in Greenwich Village.

He later became a successful theatrical agent with clients in the original casts of countless Broadway musicals in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats, representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood stars. He returned home to Los Angeles for an equally successful time as a casting director for stage and television before turning his talents to producing and directing.

Television producing credits include the PBS Concert of the Americas co-produced with Quincy Jones, the NBC Vida Awards, a ground-breaking bilingual talk show for comic Paul Rodriguez that aired internationally on Univision, the HBO Latino stand-up comedy series Loco Slam and Navidad en las Americas, a bilingual Christmas special for Buena Vista International that included a best-selling CD release with Ricky Martin, Jose Feliciano and Placido Domingo among the international artists.

Directing and staging live arts and culture events include multiple productions at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World in the Opera House, the AmericArtes Gala in the Concert Hall, ¡Viva Cesar Viva Kennedy! in the Eisenhower, Pablo Neruda: A Centenary Celebration in the Terrace Theatre, and Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture in the Rooftop Gallery.

Other live non-broadcast events; the world premiere of Concierto para Mendez for the Los Angeles Opera; the San Jose Mariachi & Mexican Heritage Festival for artistic director Linda Ronstadt, the mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, The Maravilla Concert to inaugurate the Roy E. Disney Performing Arts Center at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Placido Domingo Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a Dia de Los Muertos Celebration at Davies Hall with the mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan and the San Francisco Youth Symphony, and the Concerte Chicano et Tex Mex at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France.

Guerrero also produced Lalo Guerrero: The Original Chicano, an award-winning documentary on his late father, Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero. The film aired nationally on PBS stations in the Voces series hosted by Edward James Olmos and included a DVD/CD release. It continues to screen at national and international Film Festivals including the Turks & Caicos International Film Festival where the film garnered awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Song. The Spanish-language subtitled version has screened in Latin America including record attendance in a nine-week run at Cineteca Nacional Mexico in Mexico City.

At the same time, the Renaissance man has crossed the country with his critically acclaimed solo show ¡Gaytino! following the 2006 world premiere run in Los Angeles produced by the Center Theatre Group. He has performed the autobiographical play with music at commercial venues that include the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, New York’s Zipper Theatre, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the historic Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe where his performance was introduced by Governor Bill Richardson. ¡Gaytino! is also a favorite on the university circuit, playing on campuses from Northwestern to North Dakota State, the University of Maryland, and at UCLA www.gaytino.com

The long-waited ¡Gaytino! film was shot in the fall of 2018 with a Hollywood A-list creative team and crew. Guerrero returned to his alma mater East Los Angeles College and their new Performing Arts Center where his stage performance was filmed with an audience. The 75-minute feature is currently hitting the Film Festival circuit and there are talks with various broadcast and other media outlets.

Guerrero is an influential activist, speaking out in print, television and radio interviews in English and Spanish on both Latino/Chicano and LGBTQ issues. He is a popular figure on the speaking circuit and has addressed groups and organizations including the National Council of La Raza in Washington, DC, the Southern Arizona LULAC Youth Leadership Conference in Tucson, the California Teachers Association Conference in Palm Springs and the National Education Association conference in Washington, DC among many others.

His presentation, Activism & the Arts: A Life Journey has been hailed for its portrayal of the intersection of the Chicano and LGBTQ social and political movements and the interconnected lives of artists and activists who fueled the civil rights struggles of the past several decades. The talk has been presented at UCSB, UCLA, UT Austin, Cal State Northridge, the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix and at a LULAC conference in Dallas among others. The Smithsonian Latino Center and the Human Rights Campaign also brought it to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC for a special presentation.

He’s also established himself as an online presence through his live streamed Zoom conversations on The Happy Hour for La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the historic museum in downtown Los Angeles. Latinx luminaries including Edward James Olmos, Lucie Arnaz, Cheech Marin and Linda Ronstadt all banter with wit master Guerrero. Check them out on YouTube.

Guerrero also added educator to his resume accepting an invitation from the Cesar E. Chavez Chicana/o Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles to serve as a Distinguished Community Scholar and create a course based on his solo show. ¡Gaytino! Performance and the Power of One led to his appointment to serve as a UC Regents’ Lecturer jointly in the UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies and the LGBT Departments.

The Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts has been established in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and The Dan Guerrero Research Collection is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center that includes his oral history recorded for their LGBT and Mujeres Initiative project. Most recently, the Dan Guerrero Gaytino collection became part of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries.

http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/cema/danguerrero