Arigon Starr is an enrolled
member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. She grew up on the road as part of a
military family. Her parents, Ken and Ruth Wahpecome (Creek-Cherokee-Seneca)
supported her artistic expressions, encouraging her to learn as much as
possible about music, composition, art, and drama. Starr relocated to Los
Angeles, where she worked behind the scenes at entertainment companies like
Viacom Productions and Showtime Networks. In 1996, she left her corporate job behind
and became a full-time musician.
Starr’s
first CD, Meet the Diva, was named
Best Independent Recording at the Second Annual Native American Music Awards.
Her second release, Wind-Up,
contained the hit “Junior Frybread,” which was named Song/Single of the Year at
the Fourth Annual Native American Music Awards. In 2002, Wacky Productions
released her third CD, Backflip,
which featured Grammy-nominated country act BR549. Starr’s fourth CD, The Red Road – Original Cast Recording
was named the Best Contemporary CD at the 15th Annual First
Americans in the Arts Awards and features a Who’s Who of musical guest stars
from Los Angeles and Nashville.
Additionally, Arigon was named “Songwriter of the Year” by the Native American
Music Awards and received a nomination for “Best Country CD” from Canada’s
Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards.
Starr’s
music has taken her around the world including stops in London and the famous
West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, in addition to appearances at the New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and at venues like Sky City and Isleta
Casinos in New Mexico, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa and the National Museum of
the American Indian in Washington, DC and New York City.
Starr has also gained fame for her acting and has been
awarded two First Americans in the Arts Awards, the Maverick Award from the Los
Angeles Women’s Theater Project, and a Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers
Award. Native Voices at the Autry has featured her in several productions,
including lead roles in Equity productions of The Buz’Gem Blues, Please Do Not Touch the Indians and Kino & Teresa. Arigon is the
playwright, composer and performer in The
Red Road, a wild, wacky musical comedy from Native Voices at the Autry. The
play garnered rave reviews from the Los
Angeles Times and Daily Variety
and has toured across the U.S. and Australia. Arigon also wrote and performed
two original plays in “Red Ink,” a compilation of contemporary Native stories
produced by the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Additionally, Starr has
appeared on television in Showtime’s comedy, Barbershop: The Series and ABC’s General Hospital.
Native Voices at the Autry and the Native Radio Theater
project teamed with Starr for Super
Indian, a radio comedy series she created which was taped before a live
audience and broadcast in 2007. In July 2009, Starr taped a live radio version
of her one-woman show “The Red Road,” directed by award-winning
director/producer Dirk Maggs. The program is distributed by Native Voice One
Radio Service.
“Super Indian” will be launched as a full-fledged comic
book/graphic novel. The project is being written, penciled, inked and digitally
colored by Arigon Starr.
Starr continues to write, act and perform and is
represented by Kristene Wallis at the Wallis Agency. Starr is a member of the
Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity, and the American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists.