Darryl Maximilian Robinson As Drake On Adult Swim's Loiter Squad

HIS NAME WAS DRAKE!

Chicago-born stage performer and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson is not noted for his forays into rap music or hip-hop culture. Indeed, an experienced, classically-trained, Shakespearean actor and musical theatre vet ( examples of which can be found at his You Tube channel ), providing a comedic portrayal of one of the world's most popular rappers would be one of the farthest things from his mind as a role choice. But 10 years ago, Mr. Robinson's mind was changed.

Chicago theatre acolytes are far more familiar with Darryl Maximilian Robinson in the 1980s performing his critically-praised role of Sir Richard Drury Kemp-Kean in his original one-man show of Shakespeare and time-travel comedy 'A Bit of the Bard' ( at such venues the Windy City's Red Lion Pub and Wisconsin's Bristol Renaissance Faire ) or for his performance as Sam Semela in his Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival staging of South African playwright Athol Fugard's 'Master Harold And The Boys' at the much-missed Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre in Rogers Park ( for which he received both a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Award nomination as Best Leading Actor In A Play ) or for his noted portrayal of the dual roles of The Chairman Mr. William Cartwright and The Mayor Thomas Sapsea in the 2018 Saint Sebastian Players of Chicago revival of Rupert Holmes' Tony Award-winning Best Musical Whodunit 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' at the more than a century old St. Bonaventure Church ( for which he received a 2019 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award nomination for Best Performer In A Musical or Revue - Resident Non-Equity ).

Ever being in a professional acting situation where ( as a older performer ) he would be asked to mimic or lampoon a cultural icon was not something Darryl Maximilian Robinson expected.

But the Hollywood professional acting community is quite different from the one Mr. Robinson trained in and has come to know and work in. And "when papa needs a new pair of shoes," sometimes an actor simply takes the work that's offered. Which is how on Wednesday December 7, 2011, Darryl Maximilian Robinson found himself in a small green-screen studio space in Burbank, CA., in front of a tv director and a rap group calling itself "The Odd Future" being specifically instructed on how to make fun of the acclaimed and popular rapper Drake for an upcoming episode of a new live-action / animated comedy series that would air on Adult Swim of The Cartoon Network called 'Loiter Squad.'

And after that recorded "green screen" session veteran and award-winning Chicago And Los Angeles stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson made his national television debut On May 6, 2012 in Adult Swim's "Loiter Squad," Episode 1.7 with a comedic cameo appearance as Drake!

And though he has yet to play a major or significant television or film role on-screen, veteran and award-winning stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson ( The Founder of the multiracial, non-Equity professional chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and the ESC Los Angeles Archival Project ) has made multiple appearances as A Guest Actor on the Los Angeles-based internet performing arts interview television show 'The Actor's Choice' with veteran entertainment journalist and host Ron Brewington where he frequently discusses his work around the country in The Theatre and The Performing Arts.

A Fan Copy of Darryl Maximilian Robinson as Drake is available for viewing on You Tube.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10967118/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vGVvJpyWQ

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2748260/fullcredits

Darryl Maximilian Robinson has become noted as the very first black actor in American Theatre History to portray on stage a trio of classic dramatic roles including: Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" ( in a 1984 revival presented by The University Players of The University of Missouri-St. Louis and directed by AEA Member John Grassilli at The Benton Hall Theater ); King Henry II in a 1992 multiracial cast revival of James Goldman's "The Lion In Winter ( directed by Mr. Robinson for his chamber theatre Excaliber Productions, Ltd in St. Louis and staged at The Wabash Triangle Cafe ); and Andrew Wyke ( opposite the talented actor Sean Nix as Milo Tindle ) in a 2000, 30th Anniversary, all-black cast revival of Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" presented under Mr. Robinson's direction by his chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, Illinois.