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Dane DiLiegro

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Dane Robert DiLiegro (/dɪleɪɡroʊ/ di-LEH-grow; born August 6, 1988) is an American actor and former basketball player. DiLiegro played professional basketball for eight seasons for teams in Italy and Israel.[1] DiLiegro has appeared in productions such as American Horror Stories, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Sweet Home, and starred as the Predator in the film Prey; which currently holds the record for biggest movie or tv series premiere in Hulu history.[2]

Dane DiLiegro
DiLiegro at the premiere of Prey in 2022
Born
Dane Robert DiLiegro

(1988-08-06) August 6, 1988 (age 36)
Lexington, Massachusetts, US
Citizenship
  • United States
  • Italy
  • Israel
Occupation(s)Actor, Basketball player
Years active2007–2019 (basketball)
2019–present (acting)
Basketball career
Personal information
Listed height6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight245 lb (111 kg)
Career information
High school
CollegeNew Hampshire (2007–2011)
NBA draft2011: undrafted
Playing career2007–2019
PositionCenter / power forward
Number1, 7, 12, 24,
Career history
2011-2012Assi Basket Ostuni
2012-2013Dinamo Sassari
2013-2014Pallacanestro Trieste
2014-2015Hapoel Gilboa Galil
2015-2016Mens Sana 1871 Basket
2016-2017Scaligera Verona
2017-2019Pallacanestro Forlì 2.015

Career

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Basketball

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Dane DiLiegro after a game in Forli, 2019

After graduating from Lexington High School in 2006, DiLiegro went on to spend a year at Worcester Academy, where he refined his skills as a basketball player in the school's postgraduate program. He averaged 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks at Worcester. This led to DiLiegro receiving a full athletic scholarship to play at the University of New Hampshire.[3]

As a four-year starter for the New Hampshire Wildcats from 2007 to 2011, DiLiegro found his place on the team through defense, rebounding, and outworking his opponents. He graduated from UNH in May 2011 with the second-highest number of rebounds in program history.[4][5] DiLiegro made ESPN's Top Ten plays of the day on February 19, 2009, for a dunk.[6][3]

After going undrafted in the 2011 NBA draft, DiLiegro went on to play in Europe, being a part of Assi Basket Ostuni, (Ostuni, Italy), Dinamo Sassari (Sassari, Sardinia, Italy), Pallacanestro Trieste (Trieste, Italy), Hapoel Gilboa Galil, (Gan Ner, Israel), Mens Sana 1871 Basket (Siena, Italy), Tezenis Verona (Verona, Italy), and Pallacanestro Forlì (Forlì, Italy).[1][5]

DiLiegro won a gold medal with Team USA as a basketball player at the 18th Maccabiah Games in 2009 in Israel.[7]

Acting

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Dane DiLiegro and Dan Trachtenberg discuss a scene while shooting Prey.
 
Dane DiLiegro and Taika Waititi on set while shooting an Xbox production

In 2019, DiLiegro was invited to work as a stand-in on Free Guy, which was filming in his native Boston. While on the set, stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara suggested to DiLiegro to look into acting.[5] Just two weeks later, DiLiegro was cast to play Protein in the Netflix show Sweet Home. The role required him to wear a foam latex suit weighing 80 pounds.[8][9] He followed it by playing Master Chief in an Xbox commercial. In 2021, he portrayed the titular character Ba'al in the fifth episode of American Horror Stories.[10] He starred as the main antagonist in the 2022 Doja Cat music video for Get Into It (yuh).[11] DiLiegro appeared in the Tom DeLonge-directed Monsters of California

He stars in the Predator film Prey as the Predator;[12][13][14] He performed all the acting, stunts and motion capture of the creature. Prior to filming, he lost 25 pounds and spent months training parkour, martial arts and strengthening his neck due to the new design of the Predator, which sat the 15 pound animatronic head on top of his head, forcing him to shoot every scene essentially blind.[15][16][17]

DiLiegro conducted a substantial amount of research in preparation for his role as the Predator:

"I went to mime school," remarks DiLiegro. "With this character I have task of telling a story to people nonverbally and there is an interesting factor with the Predator. You have to give the Predator a sense of personality without humanizing him. Because Predators carry this level of anonymity. I created a backstory for him. I don’t want to say it because I don’t want to create canon. It had a little hubris and maybe toyed with Naru (Amber Midthunder) too much and ultimately it got to him. It was an interesting task telling his story, what motivated him and made him fearful without using words."[17]

Director Dan Trachtenberg on DiLiegro's performance:

"Dane brought a lot to the performance... We're getting much more character, and storytelling, and fun little nuance-y bits from him as he interacts with what he's dealing with; and so much of what Dane brought to that character is what we embraced... but also, something I had not considered at all. And I'm so thankful for, is Dane's attitude as a human. He's a professional athlete, and you can tell, what I felt, is this guy was raised by a lot of coaches in his life. And I'm not an athlete, I love sports movies, I don't know anything about [sports], so I recognize it just from watching. But he just had this, you know, he didn't complain, he could be sweating and in the most pain or whatever, and he didn't complain, he kept on going because it's the suit and it doesn't always work and you got to keep at it. But, the head is 15 pounds on top of his head, and he's looking out through the neck, so to get the Predator to look forward, which it's doing for most of the movie, if not all of it, he has to be looking straight down at the ground. So he's holding 15 pounds in a very weird way, and it's not just looking down, he has to do a weird hunch or whatever. And that's just to look like you're not a dork in a suit, thats just to make it look normal, and then he has to do all the crazy, just walking is a thing, and all the action, take, after take, after take, in hot hot hot [weather], you know? and having that, like, "I want to make it great. How do I? Let's go one more." That attitude is why his version of this creature is getting the accolades that it's getting, you know? It's really the whole personhood of Dane is part of the reason why this Yautja kicks so much butt."[18]

In 2022, Comic Book Resources named DiLiegro among the top ten monster actors of all time.[19]

DiLiegro appeared in the 2023 Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

In 2024, DiLiegro starred in the Blumhouse film Imaginary as the final antagonist, Chauncey Bear.

DiLiegro has confirmed that he will be appearing in a smaller role in the upcoming Lucasfilm production, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.[20]

DiLiegro will appear as a recurring character Badrag Knauss in the upcoming series Running Point, penned by Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, for Netflix.[21][22]

Personal life

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DiLiegro currently resides in Los Angeles[5]

DiLiegro is Jewish.[7] He holds USA, Italian, and Israeli citizenship.[23] His father is of Italian descent, with roots in Gaeta and Canosa di Puglia, and his mother is Jewish.[5]

DiLiegro's father played basketball and wrestled at the University of New Hampshire, and his brother played basketball for the Syracuse Orange from 2003 to 2007.[24]

Starting in 2016, DiLiegro served as an apprentice under famed Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini for multiple years; they continue to maintain a close friendship to this day.[8]

As of 2019, DiLiegro hosts a culinary travel series on YouTube called Adventure Monday,[25] which he tried to pitch in Los Angeles as a possible television series.[8]

In August 2022, DiLiegro officiated the wedding of his friend, Kelly Olynyk.[26][27]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Director Notes
2022 Prey The Predator Dan Trachtenberg
2023 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Unsavory Octopus James Gunn
Monsters of California Bigfoot Tom Delonge
Stay Out Graham Jared Safier
2024 Imaginary Chauncey Bear Jeff Wadlow
V/H/S/Beyond Stork Jordan Downey [28]
2025 Werewolves TBA Steven Miller Post-production

Television

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Year Title Role Director/Showrunner Notes
2020 Sweet Home Protein Lee Eung-bok
The Walking Dead Hero Walker Greg Nicotero Episode: "A Certain Doom"
2021 Side Hustle Zeke Leonard R. Gardner Jr. Episode: "Jag-Jitsu"
American Horror Stories Ba'al / Scare Patrol Sanaa Hamri Episodes: "Ba'al" & "Rubber (Wo)man"
2022 The Quest Dragior Elise Doganieri Episode: "The Weight of the World"
2023 That Girl Lay Lay Kevin Wendy Farone Episode: "The Packer Packer Bowl"
2024 Skeleton Crew TBA David Lowery Post production
2025 Running Point Badrag Knauss Mindy Kaling Recurring role, upcoming series
Cóyotl TBA Batan Silva Post production

Music video

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Year Title Role Director Artist
2020 Blackout Beelzebub Ian Rowe Mothica
2022 Get into it (Yuh) Alien Overlord Mike Diva Doja Cat

Commercial

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Year Title Role Director Notes
2020 Lucid Odyssey Master Chief Taika Waititi Xbox
2023 No Sweat Basketball Player Max Gutierrez Draft Kings

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dane DiLiegro Career Statistics". Real GM. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  2. ^ Spangler, Todd (August 9, 2022). "Hulu Says 'Prey' Is Its Biggest Movie or TV Series Premiere Ever". Variety. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Zhe, Mike (February 26, 2009). "UNH's dunking DiLiegro making name for himself". Seacoast Online. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  4. ^ "Dane DiLiegro". University of New Hampshire Athletics. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e Litz, Franz (August 5, 2022). "It takes a unique set of skills to play the Predator; meet 'Prey' star Dane DiLiegro". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ "SportsCenter Top 10 Plays". YouTube. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Daniels, Mark (November 9, 2008). "UNH star DiLiegro of Lexington has elevated his play all the way to the Maccabiah Games". Boston Herald. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Hubler, Shawn (August 9, 2022). "Former Basketball Player Finds His Niche in Hollywood". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Abrams, Sean (August 19, 2022). "Prey Star Dane DiLiegro on Going From Pro Athlete to Bloodthirsty Predator". Men's Health.
  10. ^ Heinitz, Lexi (August 6, 2021). "The Demon From American Horror Stories' Ba'al Is Gorgeous In Real Life". Looper.com. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  11. ^ Slane, Kevin. "'Prey' actor Dane DiLiegro on his role as the iconic Predator". www.boston.com. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  12. ^ Predator Skulls Filming Seemingly Wraps While Confirming Additional Cast Members - IGN, September 13, 2021, retrieved September 15, 2021
  13. ^ "New 'Predator' Movie Wraps Filming and Reveals Cast". Collider. September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  14. ^ "Predator 5 Cinematographer Announces Film Has Wrapped, Confirms Amber Midthunder Will Star As Lead". TheMix.net. September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  15. ^ O'Connell, Sean (August 7, 2022). "The Predator Costume In Prey Created Insane Physical Challenges That Co-Star Dane DiLiegro Fought To Overcome". CINEMABLEND. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  16. ^ Navarro, Meagan (August 15, 2022). "'Prey': Meet Dane DiLiegro, the Latest Actor to Play the Iconic Predator [Interview]". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  17. ^ a b "How 'Prey' Forged a New Look for an Iconic Sci-Fi Creature". Animation World Network. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  18. ^ "BBC Radio 1 - Radio 1's Screen Time, Prey Spoiler Special - With Director Dan Trachtenberg!". BBC. September 3, 2022. Retrieved September 10, 2022.
  19. ^ Jacobs, Samantha (October 26, 2022). "10 Best Movie Monster Actors Of All Time". CBR. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  20. ^ "PREY Star Dane DiLiegro Discusses Working on Recent Marvel and Lucasfilm Projects". Movies. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
  21. ^ Cordero, Rosy (March 7, 2024). "Max Greenfield, Uche Agada & Dane DiLiegro Join Mindy Kaling's Netflix Basketball Series". Deadline. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  22. ^ "Make Way for Running Point, Mindy Kaling and Kate Hudson's Basketball Comedy". Netflix Tudum. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  23. ^ "The Italian Job: The Diss Interviews Dane DiLiegro". The Diss. October 2012. Archived from the original on October 23, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  24. ^ Perry, Phil (November 21, 2010). "UNH's DiLiegro shoots for a banner day". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  25. ^ "Dane DiLiegro - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  26. ^ "Kelly Olynyk gets married in backwards cap, Air Force Ones". August 10, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
  27. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
  28. ^ Couch, Aaron (August 28, 2024). "Horror Anthology 'V/H/S/ Beyond' Reveals First Trailer, Adds 'Prey' Actor to Cast". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
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