Aref Dajani

Born in Washington, DC, Aref Dajani grew up in Silver Spring, MD and began performing theatre in high school at Montgomery Blair High School. More comfortable with music and song-writing than theatre, Aref went vocal through college and much of his adult life. Through a Latino choir in Bethesda, MD, Coral Cantigas, Aref met an amazing mezzo-soprano who would become his long time voice teacher and mentor: Miss Anamer Castrello. Through her, Aref landed his first role in opera as Monostastos in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" with The In Series. This led to more opera then to musical theatre, then dramatic readings, then dramatic theatre, where he enjoys taking on villain or comic roles, preferably both. He continued singing in ensembles and as a soloist. (He enjoys karaoke as well.) As a singer-songwriter, Aref accompanies himself on piano and guitar. In one songwriting workshop, he co-wrote a song where he sings, accompanies himself on keyboard, and signs in ASL simultaneously. Aref's film debut was through the Washington, DC 48 Film Project, where he played the male lead in the matzo ball western "3:10 to Shabbat", where he played a Kosher butcher and Jewish father. He sported a full-length beard, having just finished playing the role of Padre in a production of "Man of La Mancha" at the Greenbelt Arts Center. Through his singing as a soloist, in the choir, and in the barbershop quartet at his workplace, Aref met the talented singer-songwriter Frank "Cisco" Anderson, who cast him in the role of the classically trained baritone arch-villain Lu "Tiger" Pao in the Jamaican superhero satire "Lion of Judah: Legacy".