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Dulé
Hill
as Charlie Young |
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First-time Emmy Award nominee Dulé Hill, who made his regular series debut as the personal aide to the President in NBC’s three time Emmy winning dramatic series, “The West Wing,” remembers the comparisons he made upon entering the series’ set of the White House Oval Office versus when he and the cast set foot in the real Oval Office, as part of a V.I.P. tour.
“The first time I arrived on our set, I was amazed,” says Hill. “But weeks later when I came to the White House and the Oval Office, it was the same size and it seemed like I’d been there before. I was thinking, ‘When’s the next scene?’ I also got to meet President Clinton’s real personal aide and he made things clearer as to just how important the job is.”
Hill (whose first name is pronounced “due-lay”) was born in Orange, New Jersey, raised in nearby Sayreville, and is the youngest of two sons born to his Jamaican parents (his father is an investment banker and his mother an educator). He began attending dance school when he was three and got his first break years later when producers of Broadway’s “The Tap Dance Kid” called the school in search of child dancers who could sing and act for the production. “My first professional gig was as a kid at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre,” he muses. As the understudy to Savion Glover in “The Tap Dance Kid,” he went on to perform the lead role in the musical’s national tour working with Harold Nicholas (of the famed Nicholas Brothers) for the next 16 months. He also later appeared with Gregory Hines and Jimmy Slyde.
Hill’s next career boost came with his starring role in the original cast of “Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring In Da’ Funk” on Broadway, as he re-teamed with Glover, requiring him to interrupt his college studies during his junior year at Seton Hall. He spent two-and-one-half years in the show and earned favorable notices from casting directors, which led to a starring role with Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the hit feature film “She’s All That.” His other television credits include guest apperances in “Cosby,” “Smart Guy” and “New York Undercover,” and appearances in the TV movies “The Ditch Digger’s Daughter,” “Color of Justice” and “Love Songs” (opposite Louis Gossett Jr.).
Away from the set, Hill still immensely enjoys tap dancing as well as bowling, paintball games and marathon Monopoly sessions. He rates himself as a Los Angeles Lakers “freak.” He often travels to Jamaica (“The ultimate place to relax…”) to see family members.
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