Jacksonville Native in Spike Lee Film

When former Jacksonville resident Daniel Breaker took the stage in Broadway’s Passing Strange, he earned more than just a passing glance from legendary director Spike Lee. Lee, impressed by the performance, filmed two productions of the play and edited them together for a film that premiered on the PBS series Great Performances and earned the superlative “one of the best musicals I’ve seen” from critic Roger Ebert.


Breaker attended Jacksonville's Douglas Anderson School for the Arts for his junior and senior year of high school. It was at the encouragement of his teachers there that he applied to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, where he earned his degree in theatre. Breaker netted a Tony nomination for Passing Strange; he has also played in Broadway productions Cymbeline, Well and as Donkey in the stage adaptation of Shrek.

Passing Strange is currently available on DVD.