North Shore Native, Son Of Local H Co-Founder Makes Film Debut

EVANSTON, IL — North Shore native Lyon Daniels last week made his feature film debut in the Netflix film "We Can Be Heroes," directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Daniels, 13, was born in Evanston and started modeling for department stores as a toddler. He is the son of the co-founder and original drummer of the rock band Local H, which formed at Zion Benton High School three decades ago. He has previously appeared in three episodes of the Amazon series "Patriot."

Rodriguez is the director of "Desperado," "Sin City" and the "Spy Kids" movies. "We Can Be Heroes," the new sequel to "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D," is an "Avengers-style" superhero film that Rodriguez produced in collaboration with his four children, according to publicity materials.

Daniels plays a superhero called Noodles who has the power of elongation. He said he enjoyed talking with Rodriguez about some of their shared interests, including dinosaurs, sharks and horror movies.

"Robert has been the most amazing director to work with since he is always so nice and chill," Daniels said in a statement. "While he is directing us he sometimes busts out his guitar and plays little riffs. He also gives us drawing assignments to help keep our creativity flowing. We had a dinosaur illustration wall hanging upon set where we would hang up our best drawings."

Daniels, who now lives in Arizona, moved to the Los Angeles area at 18 months old and returned to the north suburbs at age 3, according to the Chicago Tribune. He told the paper he hopes to one day produce his own films. His father, Joe, who parted ways with Local H co-founder Scott Lucas in 1999 before reuniting in 2016 for an anniversary tour, told the Tribune he was immensely proud of the teen's accomplishment.