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 DAWN WESTLAKE (Me!)
I am
an actor/writer/producer/director based in Los Angeles, CA. I am a member of SAG and AFTRA
and President and Founder of Ron de Caña Productions, Inc,
a company dedicated to the writing and producing of feature and short films,
television and radio programs, theatre, and other entertainment for existing
or future media outlets. I have made 5 short films in the past five years
which have played in hundreds of venues worldwide and which have won 31
international awards. I am fluent in Spanish, and proficient in Italian and
Portuguese. I also read and understand Catalan.
Helen
Gum Westlake (my mother
since...well, I'll never tell!):
Mom is a retired professor/lecturer/author in the fields of sociology,
marriage and the family, child development and parenting. She holds a Masters
Degree from Iowa State University. She's written five textbooks on these
subjects and taught in high schools and a junior college in the Chicagoland area and been a guest professor at universities
all over the country. She's also extremely active in local, state and
national politics and organizations dealing with women and children's rights
and the importance of public education for all. A true superwoman, she is
also an active patron of the arts with a great love of theatre, an amazing
cook and seamstress, and a true friend to people of all ages...especially me!
 Donald G. Westlake,
Ph.D. (my father since...since I was born! You're not getting it out
of me...):
Dad is a retired metallurgist from Argonne National Laboratory where his
specialty was basic research in the study of hydrogen in metals. He published
and gave numerous papers around the world, and when we weren't traveling in
the US for Mom's
conferences, we went along to Dad's in places like Germany, Israel, Greece, Canada, etc. In 1984, he
announced at breakfast that he was retiring and contemplating becoming a
poet. Needless to say, Mom and I couldn't just dive into our grapefruit with
the gusto we always had...Five years later, Dad published his book of poems: ELBURN:44
MILES TO CHICAGO (for sale at amazon.com...or
just write me here and I'll
sell you one!), and in 1999, he won the Studs Terkel
Humanities Medal! October 18th was proclaimed "Donald G. Westlake
Day" in Elburn, Illinois and a new street was
named for him, Westlake Drive.
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