Danilo Di Julio

Born Danilo Alessandro Di Julio to mother Carol Ann Bellmore (maiden name) and father Nevio Di Julio in Rochester, Danilo's family returned to Canada, where his elder siblings had been born. Danilo is the father to a son, Thomas Daniel, and a daughter Sofia Patricia, whom he considers his motivation and the biggest blessings in his life. Danilo is happily married to wife Cori Di Julio. Danny, as he was called in his youth, grew up primarily in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island. As a young boy and teenager Danilo always chose to look at the bright side of life even through some difficult times. When he was in grade 10 his mother came to pick him up after school on the way to a family dinner and when she asked for him his grade 10 gym teacher responded, "You mean effervescent Dan!", due to his never quit attitude in everything he attempted. After high school Danilo enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces and served for three years with the Royal Canadian Dragoons as a tank gunner and patrolling expert. He qualified as a sharpshooter on his personal weapon and was a top shot with his tank always ranking among the top three gunners in regimental competitions. Danilo also served in the Scarlets (the regimental Honor guard) and was a member of the Special Service Forces (SSF) rappel team. Following a three year tour of duty he was given an honorable discharge and began to pursue two fields he had always been interested in, Acting and Football. The first time Danilo put on football pads he was 22 years old but this didn't stop him from walking on at Syracuse University for the Orangemen at 24 years of age in 1995. That was the first year for starter Donovan McNabb who Danilo would later say was "the best quarterback he'd ever been around". He also had the opportunity to practice with and against NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver, Marvin Harrison. Danilo returned to Canada after making the team in an effort to try and mend his ailing relationship with his son's mother. He continued to play Semi-Pro football for nine years during which he was involved in six semifinals and was a member of two undefeated Championship teams. During his athletic pursuits Danilo was also renewing his long lost love of acting. His first play was the Wizard of Oz, when he was 10 years old and he was bitten by the acting bug. He performed in plays in Junior and Senior High School. He actually led the troop sketch comedy routines during his battle school graduation party. However, it would be three years of gunning tanks, patrolling through forests, jumping from helicopters and parading in front of Prince Charles and Princess Diana as well as the Queen of the Netherlands before Danilo would feel that acting bug bite again. After leaving the military he was a ship without a course so he began his pursuit of the only two things to which he felt he could dedicate himself wholeheartedly. The pursuit of his bliss led him from Guelph University's dramatic program where he has fond memories of Professors Bruce Koenig and his favorite Prof Edna Hartmann as well as all the faculty that positively affected him. From there Danilo had another try at reuniting his young fragile family and left behind his acting goals once again but that ended in his final split from his son's mother. In late 1998 Danilo moved to Toronto, Ontario to reignite his professional acting career. In 2000 after a tough two years of struggling to build his resume and gain experience in films, television and commercials, Danilo began to seriously consider a move to Los Angeles. A week before he planned to leave he landed a National commercial which helped him gain apprentice status in ACTRA the Canadian professional actors' union. Over the next year Danilo continued to struggle but continually landed more jobs on American network television programs & commercials and he gained the confidence to make the move stateside. In the fall of 2001 Danilo visited Santa Monica, California to see if he would like it. He did and planned to return home, collect his things and immediately move to California to begin his career in earnest, however, fate intervened. One day before he returned to Canada his father Nevio was hospitalized and underwent double bypass surgery, so he decided to care for him during his recovery. An audition for the ABC movie "Gilda Radner: It's Always Something", resulted in landing the then biggest gig of his young career. Following that great experience he was as inspired as he had ever been and over the next few months landed a dozen acting jobs including "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" at Second City Toronto, one of Dan Aykroyd's old stomping grounds. All of this raised Danilo's profile with Casting Directors to the point where some previously closed doors suddenly opened and he continued to build his resume and gain valuable experience. Danilo also spent an hour a day six days a week watching episodes of "Inside the Actors Studio" which impressed upon him the fact that "every performer has to walk their own path". In the fall of 2002 after a falling out with his agent Danilo moved to Los Angeles to begin the long hard climb in Hollywood. The next year and a half was and emotional and physical blender. He lost his father to cancer, then split with Nicole, his girlfriend of two and a half years back in Toronto. On June 25th 2005 he tore the ACL in his right knee - all the while missing his son desperately and receiving no positive response from agents and managers in LA. During the Christmas holidays in 2005 while visiting with his mother and son in Quebec, Danilo began to recover from the cloudy hangover of losing his Father and the frustration of the industry's slamming doors. He returned to LA in January of 2006, "Feeling seven feet tall again!" Danilo had refocused his attention on how he had succeeded in Toronto before he had an agent. Within a few months of returning to LA he had landed three acting gigs and then signed with an agency. The next year had a lot of ups and downs and ended with Danilo making his stage directorial debut with Kenneth Lonergan's "This is Our Youth" followed by his appearing on stage as Scrooge at Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood and in a long form improv show called "Classless Reunion Live". In early 2007 Danilo signed with a more reputable agent and things picked up. While with them he landed a number of commercials and internet gigs in the ever growing "new media" but this time was highlighted by an appearance on NBC's hit comedy "The Office" in 2008. Shortly before, late in 2007, he performed in a second run of "Classless Reunion Live" where he met and performed with Corianna Monger (now Di Julio). They became good friends which eventually led to a short five week courtship in 2008 during which they fell in love and were married on September 26th 2009. Danilo considers Corianna the partner he has always been searching for and she is "the" love of his life. Since then, Mr. Di Julio has filmed and produced a number of independent commercials, booked roles in NBC's "Parks and Recreation", ABC's "Modern Family", HBO's "Silicon Valley", the multi Oscar winning Best Picture "ARGO" as well as numerous other credits in TV, film and over 175 commercials including multiple Super Bowl spots. As a writer/director in 2010 he won a grant for his first short film "Jack & Jill" which he wrote, filmed, directed, edited and starred. In 2015 Danilo won the award for "Best TV Pilot" at the Hollywood & Vine Film Festival for "Band Life" which he directed, co-wrote and co-produced with JT Quinn and co-edited with Marcus Neihaus while also playing a supporting role. The fall of 2017 was very busy for Mr.Di Julio and the future looks very bright as his actor, writer, director star has just begun to rise. (updated Dec.13/2017)