Yousef Abu-Taleb

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Yousef Abu-Taleb
Screen capture of Yousef Abu-Taleb as Danielbeast in lonelygirl15
Born	July 31, 1980 (1980-07-31) (age 27) Arlington, Virginia
Occupation	Film actor

Yousef (Ang:Joseph) Abu-Taleb (Arabic: يوسف أبو طالب‎) (born circa 1980) is an American actor of half-Arab, one-quarter English, and one-quarter white American heritage, who is perhaps best known for co-starring in the role of Daniel (Danielbeast) in the lonelygirl15 drama, alongside Jessica Lee Rose.

To date he has appeared in over 200 episodes of lonelygirl15^[1]. Yousef also collaborated with lonelygirl15 writer-director Glenn Rubenstein to co-write the episode "Miss Me?"^[2].

Yousef was born in Arlington, Virginia. His father is from Jordan, where Yousef lived until age eight. Much of his upbringing was in Virginia. He attended Lake Braddock Secondary School and George Mason High School and, in 2003, graduated from Blue Ridge Community College. In 2005 he moved to Los Angeles to try his hand at acting. His divorced parents both live in Virginia—his father, an Arab American, in Herndon and his mother, a British American, in Harrisonburg. He has two brothers and four sisters.

Yousef is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Prior to lonelygirl15, he had a small role in Dorm Daze 2, in a deleted scene, and was in an independent film, Stray.

While looking for acting jobs, Yousef found a Craigslist posting for an independent film codenamed Children of Anchor Cove, which later turned out to be the lonelygirl15 project. Although he was almost ten years older than the character of Daniel, he won the role. Daniel, who was originally supposed to be 15-16, was rewritten as an 18-year-old.

During the filming, before his identity was revealed, Yousef kept a low profile, keeping to his house and wearing sunglasses when he went out. After the creators and crew came forward, he was openly interviewed by MTV and CNN. He also appeared with Jessica Lee Rose on Tom Green Live.

A screen capture from an episode of lonelygirl15 showing Jackson Davis as Jonas (left) and Yousef Abu-Taleb as Daniel.

Yousef appeared with Jessica Lee Rose on the red carpet at the VH1 Big in '06 Awards, where lonelygirl15 won in the "biggest download" category. He also did some work alongside Carmen Electra for the promotional videos of Epic Movie, a film that parodies a number of other epic films such as The DaVinci Code, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Snakes on a Plane.

He is currently co-producing a feature length film "Family of Four" staring Alexandra Paul from Baywatch and Abby Wilde from Zoey 101. The film was written and directed by John Suits, an old tie from Harrisonburg, and is set to debut later in 2008.