Unlike his cousin Angelique, Dante grew up in the van Helsing family business. His father was a 'travelling salesman', but mostly what he distributed was wooden stakes, silver bullets, salt and fire. The old man was careful to keep Dante back from the frontline of danger, but that didn't mean it wouldn't come for the boy, sensing youth and vulnerability. Though necessity, Dante made his first supernatural kill at age seven.

When his father passed on at the hands of a demon, Dante was a young man prepared to pick up where the old man had left off. He continued to travel for a while, learning more about the things that go bump in the night first hand, learning the lore, honing his fighting skills and making connections amongst the hunter community, such as it was. Eventually, though, he discovered the nexus of monstrous infestation that was New York, and decided he had to settle in to keep a lid on it. He set himself up as a private detective, and soon gained a reputation as the sort that would handle the strangest of cases.

Dante is in his late 20's, and stands a little over 6' tall. His hair is tawny blond, shoulder-length but worn in a tail to keep from getting in his way in a fight, and his eyes are indigo blue. He is muscular and broad shouldered, but in a toned, athletic way rather than being bulky, a result of martial arts and combat training - and the occasional necessity to run away from a monster very fast indeed. His body bears scars and singes from close encounters with the supernatural, and he is heavily tattooed - including with warding sigils against magic.

Although an experienced and canny nightstalker, Dante's fractured upbringing has left him a little awkward and unsettled in normal life - a bit of an outsider.