March 2, 2022

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai | When The Drum Beat Diversifies

by Anna Brosnihan

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“Comedy is medicine,” declares actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, “That’s how Indigenous communities have treated trauma—a lot of times through laughter.” The twenty-year-old actor stars in the 2021 hit Hulu series, Reservation Dogs. The Taika Waititi-created comedy breathes fresh air into an industry often too reliant on stereotypes in the name of representation. The series follows a ragtag group of Indigenous teens trying to collect enough money to leave their reservation and move to California. Created by an entirely Indigenous cast and crew, Reservation Dogs exemplifies humor’s influence on self-formation and the challenges therein, whether that be personal or generational.

The young Woon-A-Tai, who is from the Oji-Cree First Nations, plays the role of the show’s protagonist, Bear Smallhill, a well-intentioned but sometimes reckless teen navigating a life that has not often been kind to him. “There’s not a lot of things different between me and Bear...” admits Woon-A-Tai. “That’s what kind of scared me when I first read the script. I wanna say that I’m a good guy and I come from a good place, and I feel like it’s the same thing with Bear.”

Both on and off-screen, the Toronto-born actor is magnetic—a wide, bright smile, and a respectful attentiveness awarded to those on whom he focuses his attention. The young actor walks and talks with a sincerity often difficult to find in a young person experiencing the attention that comes with a breakout role. Woon-A-Tai credits much of his humility to his time back home. “I can come back to Toronto with my hat size a little bigger,” he says with a smile, “and then my family and friends really ground me. It’s interesting because—the world of acting, it’s super cool—but having friends who are not actors and don’t really give a shit about it, it’s very much grounding.”

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Woon-A-Tai has always been deeply creative, but never imagined that he would one day appear on a TV series powered by one of today’s most influential studio platforms. Music was the young actor’s biggest passion, and he dedicated most of his time as a youth to learning traditional drumming. “When I was younger, I didn’t pursue acting because I thought it was out of reach, being who I am and living in Canada,” he says. “I mean, in a sense, music has been a part of my life longer than acting, and honestly an even more important part of it.” The two passions intersected when, at the same Native American center where he was taught drumming, Woon-A-Tai spotted a casting call sheet on the community board. “My mom told me to take it, which, at the time, I don’t know why I listened to her. But I did, and that’s how I got into acting.”

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The actor has a deep connection with his musical side, though he uses his two creative outlets to express different parts of himself as an artist. “With acting, I’m able to be other people, step into another person’s shoes,” says Woon-A-Tai. “When I practice my native drumming, I can’t be other people. I’m actually who I am when I’m singing my traditional songs, you know? Especially with specific songs that you learn along the way, like your family song and your color song—all of these songs that are very personal to me.”

**TEDDY VONRANSON** vest and **DAVID YURMAN** jewelry.

Naturally, Woon-A-Tai has many hopes for the impact of a series like Reservation Dogs. For Hollywood, he is proud to demonstrate that Indigenous stories don’t have to be stereotypical to be profitable. “Bear is an everyday average teenager from almost anywhere in the world,” he explains. “He makes mistakes, he doesn’t think things through, like how it will affect people or how it will affect him in his next steps.” But more importantly, for Indigenous audiences, Woon-A-Tai hopes to provide a character that people can actually relate to. “We wrote this for ourselves and not for the masses or for mass audiences,” the actor concludes. “It’s really cool that this show was made because now the younger generation can grow up with that and see that.”