Born in Los Angeles of Chinese-Japanese ancestry, Dan Kwong is a veteran performance artist, writer, teacher and visual artist who has been presenting his solo performances since 1989. Hailed by critics as “a master storyteller”, Kwong draws upon his own life experiences to explore the personal, the historical, the social and the unspeakable. With keen insight and a generous sense of humor, he intertwines storytelling, multimedia, dynamic physical movement, poetry, martial arts and music. 

His works explore subjects such as cultural diversity and discovery; Asian-American identity; Japanese American internment during WWII; the impact of HIV/AIDS on Asian Americans; and Kwong’s lifelong goal to become the First Performance Artist in Space.  Touring extensively, Kwong has performed in venues across the United States; and in London, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Mexico City. He is recipient of numerous fellowships recognizing his excellence in performance art from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Art Matters Inc., Brody Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace, N.Y., Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and has been nominated twice for the Alpert Award in the Arts.

As a teacher Kwong has led numerous workshops in autobiographical writing and performing throughout the U.S. and in Hong Kong, London, Indonesia and Thailand.
He is founder and curator of "Treasure in the House", L.A.’s first Asian Pacific American performance and visual art festival, presented at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica since 1991.  Currently he is writing a screenplay with the Academy Award-winning team of Cedar Grove Productions about a baseball team in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II, working title "The Desert Carp".  He was also part of “The Art of Rice”, an international collaborative performance project which incorporated music, dance, theater and puppetry with performing artists from China, Burma, Japan, Vietnam, India, Taiwan, Indonesia, Dominican Republic and U.S. The project was developed in Bali under the direction of Judy Mitoma of the UCLA Center of Intercultural Performance, and toured Hawaii and Southern California in fall of 2003, exploring the many roles of rice in various cultures of the world.

Kwong is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Resident Artist at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.  In July 2004, University of Michigan Press will publish his book, From Inner Worlds to Outer Space: The Multimedia Performances of Dan Kwong.