Dan Gilvezan was born in south St. Louis, mere steps away from the legendary Anheuser-Busch brewery. As the eldest of three children, his inclination towards performing became apparent at an early age, when he started charging neighborhood kids a nickel each to attend impromptu talent shows in his parents' garage.
Following this auspicious beginning, he took on various roles in elementary school plays, including Little Boy Blue, Jack Horner, and Wee Willie Winkie. One of his teachers once remarked, "He was really something, he not only had his own lines memorized, but everyone else's as well. What a pain in the ass!" By the eighth grade, Dan had built an impressive resume, but it was his turn as Harold Hill in a high school production of "The Music Man" that truly cemented his passion for acting.
Upon graduating from Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri with a BA in drama, Gilvezan joined the National Players touring company, bringing classical performances to grade schools, universities, and civic auditoriums nationwide. After completing the tour, he honed his skills in regional theater, summer stock, dinner theater, and children's theater along the Atlantic seaboard.
Seeking success on the West Coast, Gilvezan moved to Los Angeles, only to find that finding fame and fortune in Hollywood wasn't as easy as he had imagined. "It was when I saw all these character actors I had watched on TV as a kid, who I had always imagined as living in big mansions in Beverly Hills, standing in line at the unemployment office that the realities of this business truly hit me."
After a time working odd jobs to make ends meet, Dan finally landed the role of Spider-Man in the NBC Saturday morning series "Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends." He went on to play notable cartoon characters in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Bumblebee in the original Transformers television series, jet pilot Slipstream in "GI Joe," Cooler in Hanna Barbera's "Pound Puppies," and many more.
His television appearances are too numerous to mention, but include recurring roles on "Diagnosis Murder," "She-Wolf of London," and the FX series "Baskets."
Expanding into the world of literature, Dan is the author of "Bumblebee & Me: Life as a G1 Transformer," a memoir of his time working on the seminal series, and the novels "Drowned in the Grenadine" and "Soul."
