Jeffrey Daniel

Daniel and his Soul Train dance partner Jody Watley, (whom he had known since she was twelve years old from church) along with Howard Hewett, became the world-famous soul funk group Shalamar who performing live such songs as A Night To Remember, The Second Time Around, I Can Make You Feel Good, Friends, Make That Move, Take That to the Bank, There It Is and I Owe You One, together with Carolyn Griffey – the daughter of Solar Records founder Dick Griffey.[8] Daniel had become something of a style icon with his ever-changing hair styles and unique dress sense. He was often seen on the London club scene with the likes of Bananarama, Wham and Culture Club.[9] After seven years, millions of albums sales, and tours around the world, Shalamar performed at London's Wembley Arena and went their separate ways in 1984. Soon after, Daniel took on the role of 'Electra' in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new West End musical Starlight Express which involved wild costumes with complex choreography on roller skates. Also in 1984 Daniel appeared in the Paul McCartney movie Give My Regards to Broad Street displaying his signature robotic or marionette-like dancing style (with McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney and members of the band Toto made up as marionettes) to the Wings hit, "Silly Love Songs". In 1985, Daniel hosted 620 Soul Train, a British version of Soul Train produced with the blessing of Don Cornelius.

By 1987, Daniel was working with Michael Jackson who had always been a fan of Daniel's dance style since watching him on Soul Train in the 1970s.[4][5] He was hired as co-choreographer on the "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal" videos with primary choreographer Vincent Paterson in which he also starred with his "dance brothers" Geron "Caszper" Candidate and Derek "Cooley" Jackson/Jaxson. Daniel was later employed as a creative and choreography consultant on his world tours and the video Ghosts. Daniel's music and dance expertise was then employed when he became a consultant at the MJJ Productions record label to whom Brownstone, 3T and Men of Vizion were signed. Michael Jackson flew Daniel back to live in the United States from Japan where Daniel had taken up residence since leaving the United Kingdom.

Today, Daniel works and lives in Lagos, Abuja, London and Osaka, Japan. He is a fluent speaker and writer of the Japanese language with a fair grasp of Cantonese. He continues to perform, choreograph, produce and compose with some of the biggest names in show business. He has worked with Babyface, LL Cool J, Paul McCartney, Sheena Easton, The Go-Go's and Vanessa Williams.[10] He joined Nigerian Idol as a judge in 2010 for three seasons and has been performing live shows with a reformed Shalamar since 2002. The Shalamar lineup is Daniel, Howard Hewett and Carolyn Griffey. They continue performing as a group and were touring in 2017 across the U.K.[8]