I’m a proud Canadian born in Ottawa, our Nation’s Capitol. I moved to Toronto when I was three. We were a middle-class family in a nice home where I learned to always treat people with respect. I was an average student, more interested in hockey and baseball. I never showed any real aptitude for writing until my late 20’s after two years of taking Eli Rill’s acting workshops. I had been in some TV shows and films and decided to try to write a screenplay. Eli loved it, and encouraged me to go to Los Angeles, where he was moving with his wife and son to work with Lee Strasberg at his famed Actor’s Studio. A few months later I was in the Cast of a Play Mr. Strasberg was producing with hopes of taking it to Broadway. Being in this environment sparked an idea for a film. I wrote the script, showed it to Eli and Larry Mann, a fine actor and fellow Canadian living in Los Angeles. Larry introduced me to a producer who set up a meeting with Lew Weitzman, a respected literary agent with his own Agency now after several years with the William Morris Agency. Lew signed me! I was thrilled! So were Eli and Larry. A year later I was hired to write a TV Movie, followed by ‘Inspector Gadget’. A few years later I had my own production company producing TV Movies. I share this because you never know when an opportunity will come along and change your life. I had no training in writing, and had I known then how difficult this business is, I likely would never have taken that first step. My friends thought I was crazy flying off to Los Angeles, but Eli saw something in me, and that was all I needed. If you have a dream, don’t be afraid to take a chance to pursue it, and never be afraid of failing, because that’s how you get better. And it really helps if you’re fortunate to have a great mentor … or three!