"Joel's words are where I go when I need some inspiration. And he never lets me down." - Lin-Manuel Miranda (Yeah, that Lin.)

Joel L. Daniels, also known as Joel Leon, is a performer, author and story-teller who writes and tells stories for Black people.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joel specializes in moderating and leading conversations surrounding race, masculinity, mental health, creativity and the performing arts, with love at the center of his work and purpose. He is a F.H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts alum, winner of the Bronx Council of the Arts BRIO Award in Poetry and is the author of "Book About Things I Will Tell My Daughter" and "God Wears Durags, Too", published by Bottlecap Press.

His recent TED talk on healthy coparenting has been viewed over 1M times, globally. He’s worked with The Gates Foundation, Nike, Twitter and HBO, and has been featured on the TODAY Show, Insider, the Columbia Journal, BBC News, Sirius XM, Forbes, Medium, Philadelphia Printworks, Blavity, and the Huffington Post.

He lives in Brooklyn and is the father to Lilah and West.