yaY! Some of you know that for the past four – almost five – decades, I have acted in film, television and stage plays... 

It has been rewarding and I consider myself fortunate. However, before and during those years, I did many other jobs to feed myself and keep a roof over my head. I delivered newspapers, telegrams, telephone books, and washed dishes, all before I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at age seventeen after dropping out of high school in my junior year. 

I needed to get away from Chicago’s mean streets. After my stint in the Corps where I passed the high school GED exam, I went to work nights at the Post Office while studying during the day at a community college. I received financial assistance from Chicago’s Roosevelt University and graduated with a pretty decent GPA and earned a BA in Spanish with a minor in French. 

I left the Post Office and worked as a community organizer in my old neighborhood before entering the University of Chicago in pursuit of a Master’s degree in Spanish. I also worked as Program Director for a Head Start Program; while doing so I started acting in plays with a local community theatre. Nothing serious, mind you, until one night during a performance of a play, I felt something in my gut akin to the thrill of a roller-coaster ride, I was hooked. Studies, be damned! 

I was then working as a Juvenille Parole Agent for the state of Illinois, and I must say that the job occupied the same level of importance as my studies. Shortly afterwards, I quit my job, and dedicated myself to satiating the hunger for acting. A couple of years later, I moved to Hollywood. During the ensuing years, I acted in many movies, more television shows, and some theatre works. I wrote a few stage plays, fewer screenplays, and one teleplay.

In the early 1990’s the passion to serve the community re-ignited; I volunteered for the At-Risk-Youth in the Los Angeles Unified School District at the Maxine Waters Employment Program where I taught acting and writing improvisation for several years before being hired as a teacher in the Adult Education Division. 

In 2001, I returned to my studies and received a MA in Spanish in 2003 from UC Santa Barbara. 

Two years later, I retired

from LAUSD and was accepted into the

UCLA African Studies Graduate Program;

I received the MA in 2008 ...

yaY

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