Exclusive Interview
‘Insecure’: Could Issa & Daniel Have Ultimately Worked Out? Y’lan Noel Says…
What To Know
- Y’lan Noel starred in Issa Rae’s Insecure as Daniel King.
- The actor looked back at the role and revealed whether or not Daniel and Issa could have worked out.
- Noel currently stars in the hit Netflix series Nemesis.
Y’lan Noel recently made his Netflix debut in the crime drama series Nemesis. The show quickly became a hit for a streamer, but there’s one role of Noel’s that he continues to get recognized for years later: Insecure‘s Daniel King.
Insecure, created by Issa Rae, ran on HBO for five seasons. The 10th anniversary of the show’s premiere is this October, and the fifth anniversary of the series finale is in December. Noel appeared in the first three seasons of the HBO show.
Daniel was an old flame of Issa’s from their high school and college days. They had a complicated on-again, off-again relationship as adults, and ultimately went their separate ways. “I think that Daniel definitely got a bad rap, and I don’t think that’s there’s any bias there,” Noel said.
Issa ended up with Lawrence (Jay Ellis) by the series finale, but we asked Noel whether or not Issa and Daniel could have been endgame if the circumstances had been different.
“I think so. I think Daniel had come to a place in his life where he was willing to work things out, but it just… timing is everything, and the timing just wasn’t right for those two,” he told Swooon.
Nearly a decade after the show first premiered, Noel admitted, “People always talk to me about Daniel. Ever since that character, I’ve been trying to do things that could sort of remove me from being called that, but you know, now they’re like, ‘Okay, Coltrane Wilder, let me see, oh yeah, Daniel is the origin story because he got his feelings hurt, and now he’s become a criminal, and Coltrane is a reflection of that.'”
He added, “Regardless of where you come from or where I go, I’m always going to be embraced as Daniel, and now, fortunately, we have Coltrane adding more layers to that.”
Reporting by Meaghan Darwish
Insecure, All Seasons, Streaming Now, HBO Max
