‘The Young and the Restless’: Michael Damian Returns as Danny Romalotti in December
Michael Damian is no stranger to Genoa City. He began portraying Danny Romalotti on The Young and the Restless when he was just a teenager. Damian remained a staple in the soap’s storylines from 1980 to 1998. However, since leaving the CBS soap as a series regular in the late ’90s, Damian has made quite a few returns and guest appearances over that two decades.
It sounds like Damian is ready to make another return to the city before the end of the year too. Find out more about Damian’s return to Y&R and more about his character’s backstory below.
The Romalottis are headed back to Genoa City
It’s official! The Romalottis are headed back to Genoa City for another run on Y&R. Both Danny Romalotti and his son Daniel Romalotti are set to return to the CBS soap before the year’s end. Neither Danny nor his son Daniel have been staple characters in any Y&R storylines since 2013.
However, the younger Romalotti did make a brief return to Genoa City in 2016 for a class reunion and to visit his mother, Phyllis Summers. According to Soaps In Depth, Danny Romalotti’s first air date will be December 22, 2022.
It has not been announced when Daniel Romalotti’s official first air dates will begin, but it is believed that he will arrive in Genoa City before his father does. While both Danny and Daniel are expected to appear in multiple episodes, there is no word yet if their returns will be full-time or simply for a few episodes.
Danny Romalotti has been with Y&R for years
According to Fandom, the senior Romalotti first arrived in Genoa City in 1980. Before coming to the city, Danny had been working as a con artist with his father, Rex Sterling. After having enough of this lifestyle, the teen opted for honest work and landed a job waiting tables in Genoa City.
Not long after arriving on the scene, Danny also decided to start performing rock concerts in town. This garnered him wide attention, and he soon began touring around the country. While on tour in New York City, Danny was stalked by Phyllis Summers. Phyllis eventually got close to Danny. She even ended up drugging him one night and claimed to be pregnant with his child.
Despite the assault and manipulation, Danny ended up marrying Phyllis to do right by his child, as he did not want to be anything like his own father. A few years down the line, Danny discovered that he was not the biological father of Phyllis’s child after all. However, Danny still wanted to raise Daniel as his own.
Danny took Phyllis to court, where she was deemed to be an unfit mother, and full custody of Daniel was awarded to Danny. As Daniel entered his pre-teen years, Danny sent him to a boarding school which caused Daniel to foster a lot of resentment toward both of his parents. He believed that his mother didn’t want him and his father was too busy to deal with him.
When Daniel returned to Genoa City in the early 2000s as a 16-year-old, he was extremely rebellious and got into quite a bit of trouble. Eventually, both Danny and Phyllis were able to mend their relationships with their son and found a way to be cordial with each other too. Fans can look forward to seeing how the new dynamics play out when Phyllis and Danny reconnect in the upcoming months.
Michael Damian’s life outside of daytime television
When not portraying Danny Romalotti on Y&R, Michael Damian finds a variety of ways to keep himself busy. According to Soap Opera Digest, Damian has found great success as a director, writer, and producer in Hollywood.
According to IMDb, Damian’s latest production with his wife, Janeen Damian, is Falling For Christmas, which is set to release on Netflix on November 10, 2022. The Netflix film stars Lindsay Lohan and Chord Overstreet.
In addition, Damian has another Netflix movie starring Lohan called Irish Wish, set to release in 2023. With Damian so busy with a variety of projects both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, only time will tell how long he is able to stick around Genoa City.
