D'Lo

Details

Biography

Topics

Art & Politics

Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders

Comedy

Film & Video

Hip Hop

Immigration

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer

Media

Performance

Poetry/Spoken Word

Pride Reimagined

Programs for High School Students

Racism/Racial Justice

Storytelling

D’Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American speaker and performer whose work ranges from keynotes and workshops to stand-up comedy, from one-person shows to poetry and storytelling. Rooted in social justice, D'Lo brings the fierce with the funny through his presentations about being a queer/trans artist and activist raised within an immigrant family and community, as well as his stories about being an artist schooled by hip-hop, feminists, and queer artist elders.

His solo shows Ramble-Ations, D’FunQT, D’FaQTo Life and To T, or not To T have toured theaters and festivals nationally, and he is a popular performer and speaker on the college and university circuit as well events for companies, agencies, and non-profit/community organizations.

D'Lo's acting credits include the HBO series LOOKING, the Amazon series TRANSPARENT, the Netflix series SENSE 8 and MR. ROBOT, and NBC's CONNECTING, as well as the Issa Rae-produced MINIMUM WAGE. He can also be seen in the SpeakOut produced short feature film, THE SYED FAMILY XMAS EVE GAME NIGHT, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2021. D'Lo was last seen in Billy Eichner’s movie BROS, a recent episode of QUANTUM LEAP, and RO & SHIRELLE, a short buddy comedy with Shakina Nayfack.

D'Lo is the recipient of numerous grants and awards for his work - from the City of Santa Monica, Durfee Foundation, National Performance Network, Ford Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Most recently, D’Lo was awarded the Artist Disruptor Fellowship through the Center for Cultural Performance and 5050x2020 an initiative started by Joey Soloway. He is also a Senior Civic Media Fellow through USC’s Annenberg School of Innovation funded by the MacArthur Foundation, a Cultural Trailblazer Award recipient from the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs, and winner of a CTG Sherwood Award for Theater.

As a writer, D'Lo's work has been published in numerous academic journals, literary anthologies, and is featured in print/online media such as The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, NBC, The Advocate, and CNN. He has appeared in Buzzfeed and Fusion videos, and the award-winning documentary PERFORMING GIRL centers his queerstory as a trans artist.

He is the creator of the “Coming Out, Coming Home” writing workshop series which have taken place with South Asian and/or Immigrant LGBTQ organizations nationally, which provide a transformative space for workshop participants to write through their personal narratives and share their truths through a public reading.

Testimonials

“D’Lo delivered an extraordinary keynote presentation at the Gender Studies Symposium last year. Poignant and funny, personal and political, reflective and provocative, D’Lo’s talk was the perfect conclusion to our three-day event. He told moving stories, shared amusing photos, spoke from the heart, made us laugh, and helped us to think. D’Lo delivered exactly the kind of address we’d hoped for when we booked him. We appreciated his willingness to craft a presentation that worked for our needs. We couldn’t have been happier!”
— Kimberly Brodkin, faculty director, Gender Studies Symposium, Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR

“D’Lo is an absolutely phenomenal host/MC. He is by far one of the greatest that I have had the pleasure of working with at Grand Park since it opened in 2012. His ability to read the moment and know just what is required is unsurpassed. He utilizes a perfect balance of humor and physical comedy along with sincerity and graceful eloquence to connect deeply with audiences and to guarantee that everyone involved shines. Staff and artists love working with him as well which makes not only the product but the process a pleasure. I simply can’t recommend him highly enough.”
— Julia Diamond, Programming Director, Grand Park, The Music Center, Los Angeles CA

“Thank you so much for all your help. Over the past few weeks, we've been hearing such wonderful reflections on the event, and people really got so much out of laughing with and listening to D'Lo.”
— Eesha, Northeastern University South Asian Student Organization, Boston MA

“D’Lo’s humor, pathos, and d’lightful d’meanor keep the audience engaged at all times.”
– Mike Ward, Bay Times

“D’Lo was the keynote speaker for our Diversity Dialogues series. His talent and ability to bring comedy and real social justice issues into a performance/keynote address blew us away. D’Lo is truly one of our best keynote speakers we have ever had. Our community is still raving about his performance. I highly, highly, recommend D’Lo and his performance.”
— Yuri Hernandez Osorio, Diversity & Inclusion Program Coordinator, University of Portland OR

Speeches

Born Queer into a Tamil-Sri Lankan Hindu family and raised by Hip Hop, D'Lo's presentations go beyond mere lectures - they combine stories, comedy, spoken word/poetry, and solo-based theater.

D'Faqto Life
Using excerpts from D Lo’s different solo shows, D’FaQTo Life (pronounced De Facto) is a roller-coaster ride of emotions with stories executed through comedic theater and storytelling. D’Lo shares from the perspective of being raised a child of immigrant parents and trying to negotiate how identifying as “queer” intersected with a passion to create political art in America. This is a show by an infiltrator who lives underground, conspiring ways to make you think and laugh in no particular order. Some topics in the presentation include: art as a tool for social justice, making art a regular practice, comedy as spiritual medicine, navigating a cis/het world as a queer gender non-conforming person, the lengths queer people of color go in order to find their path in a queerphobic society, his journey struggling with being an activist and self-care, his ongoing relationship with his ancestral motherland, and the important role that connection plays with the madness/conservatism/bigotry that has surfaced with a vengeance post-45.

What Does Beautiful Masculinity Look Like?
In this presentation, D'Lo shares his perspective as a community-based artist whose powerful work delves into the intersection of comedy and healing, and mental health and masculinity. He will talk about his latest public installation busking project called "Cry with You" aka the UNCLES project and the question at its foundation: what does beautiful masculinity look like? D'Lo also draws from his solo-based work and comedy as well as his cultural work within queer/trans immigrant and BIPOC communities.

Using Comedy to Heal Trauma
In this presentation (or workshop), D'Lo will share stories about his own healing journey utilizing writing and performance, as well as his experiences facilitating writing and comedy workshops with college students and/or QTBIPOC/immigrant folks. Participants will be invited to then participate in quick creative exercises in which D'Lo's methodology can be experienced first-hand, with some take-aways as to how to continue creatively re-shaping our past narratives to fit our present and future understandings of ourselves. And in the end, D'Lo hopes that every participant leaves with a soulful understanding that being intentional in our approach to art making in community can be an example of how to walk in this world in our jobs, families, relationships, leadership roles etc., strengthening the communities we belong to.

Media

D'Lo Performs at Trans Pride Los Angeles

D'Lo, one of the keynotes at NCORE 2018.