Dash Mihok on AllMovie

An actor with an undeniably friendly appeal, Dash Mihok was born in New York in 1974. Both of Mihok's parents were active in theater and the arts, and they encouraged their son to explore his creative side. He joined up with the program City Kids while in high school, a production involving Jim Henson puppets that performed all over the city, teaching children about character and self-esteem.

Mihok's interest in performance only grew as he got older, and he began auditioning for professional roles after high school, scoring appearances on Law & Order and in the movie Sleepers. Then, still a virtual unknown, Mihok got a callback for a much more prominent role when he was cast as Benvolio, best friend of Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo in Baz Luhrmann's hallucinatory, modern take on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The project gave Mihok an amazing chance to show his stuff; not only did he impress audiences by handling a serious, emotional acting role complete with difficult, antiquated language, but he also walked around bare-chested in many scenes, wowing viewers with his muscular physique.

Mihok continued to pick and choose interesting projects, acting in everything from big-budget blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow and The Perfect Storm to independent arthouse movies like Johnny Flynton and Mojave. Mihok was a particular delight to audiences in 2006's Hollywoodland and in 2007's family film Firehouse Dog, but that year, he decided to try something a little more unconventional, joining the cast of the show Cavemen, a dry satirical comedy about the group of cultured, well-educated Neanderthals from the popular line of Geico insurance ads.