Daniel Passer

Daniel Passer is currently playing the lead clown in the world tour of Cirque du Soleil’s latest spectacle Zarkana directed by Francois Girard. Previous Cirque credits include Banana Shpeel directed by David Shiner at the Beacon Theatre in New York and Franco Dragone’s Le Reve at The Wynn in Las Vegas. Theatre credits include: Center of the Star with Cornerstone Theatre Company, the Lover in Dreamplay, the title character in The Servant of Two Masters (Bergamot Station), The Imaginary Invalid (The Actors’ Gang), Rameau’s Nephew, Chicago Conspiracy Trial, and Macbeth (The Odyssey Theatre), She Stoops to Conquer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), and My Birthday Party – a theatrical piece incorporating acrobatics, music and clowning that he co-created with his partners at We Few Productions. Film credits include Danny Roane, First Time Director with Andy Dick and Jack Black, The Little Death, Music From Another Room with Jude Law, Almost Heroes, and Ted. On television, Daniel has appeared on Monk, King of Queens, Grounded For Life, Providence, Tracey Takes On, and News Radio.

Mr. Passer directed Andy Dick’s Circus of Freaks at the Key Club in Los Angeles, which later inspired The Andy Dick Show on MTV. He is currently the Comedy Conceptor for Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana which has played Radio City Music Hall, The Kremlin in Moscow and the Stadium in Madrid. He is a founding member of the clown troupes Your New Best Friends (World Stages, NY), gods of Sex, and The Rotten Plantains (45 Bleecker, NY). Daniel directed My Birthday Party which ran to sold out audiences at The Miles Playhouse, and The Courtyard at Springfest Los Angeles.. Daniel was the U.S. representative at the International Commedia dell’Arte Festival in Italy working alongside such greats as Ferruchio Soleri, Dario Fo, Roberto Benini and Georgio Strehler of the Teatro Piccolo. He has played Arlecchino on the boards of such prestigious theatres as The American Repertory Theatre, The Teatro Olympico, The Actor’s Gang and many others. Daniel is an alumnus of The Second City and was trained under the late, great Del Close, Joe Flaherty and Lewis Arquette. Daniel is the founder of Darkstage Theatre Company, a company dedicated to touring the maximum-security prisons in California. Darkstage’s production of The Maids received the ArtsReach Grant from the William James Association for its San Quentin production. Mr. Passer was a producer and writer on the feature film Ted, which won the Audience Choice Award at the San Francisco Film Festival and Best Comedy at the New York Independent Film Festival. For the Women’s Entertainment Network, Daniel directed and produced the television series Kiss ‘n Tell in New York. He has also directed segments for television on The Costello Show, The Emmy Awards and Anthony Rapp’s music video Out, Out Damn Spot.

He has taught Commedia/Improvisation at Moscow Art Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Brown University, Harvard, Cornell, CalArts, Trinity College, The Second City, University of Redlands and University of Alaska and is the Master Acting Teacher for The Edward Albee Theatre Festival and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. Daniel is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley (Phi Beta Kappa) and The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard.