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FREE Panel Discussions at Theatre of NOTE*
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Monday through Thursday, June 21-24, 2010, 3:30-5:00pm

Monday June 21, 2010 - Representing Reality, Diversity on Stage

What is diversity and what does it mean on our stage? Is it a social message? Is it art imitating life? Is it an educational tool? Enjoy this thought-provoking discussion with local theatre professionals and see what the message is that we make on our stage and how it affects various artistic communities. Go to www.theatreofnote.com for an updated list of panelists slated for this workshop.

Tuesday June 22, 2010 – Beyond the Black Box - The Journey of Playwrights & Producers

Are you a recent graduate, an aspiring writer or producer, been working in the theatre, or simply trying to find new avenues for your work? This panel explores the perspectives of LA theatre artists and producers who take their work beyond 99-seat theatre to other theatrical communities, as well as to film, web and TV. Meet playwrights and producers at various levels and hear them discuss the successes, trials and tribulations of taking their material to next level. Go to www.theatreofnote.com for an updated list of panelists slated for this workshop.

Wednesday June 23, 2010 - Find Your Funding

Where's the money? With the state of the economy and increading cuts for arts funding, where can you find the money you need to produce the work you want? Find out firsthand from different governmental, city-wide, and private funding resources about what you can do and where you can look to become a more effective fundraiser. Go to www.theatreofnote.com for an updated list of panelists slated for this workshop.

Thursday June 24, 2010 - Taking the Leap: Stage to TV/Film/Digital Media

One dream of the Los Angeles artist is having the flexibility to work both stage and screen. Chat with local artists who made the transition and learn what their journey was to get there. Go to www.theatreofnote.com for an updated list of panelists slated for this workshop.

* Panelists attending will be updated regularly

CURRENT PANELIST BIOS

Monday, June 21 - Representing Reality, Diversity on Stage

DIANNA FUEMANA (Producer, Playwright, Actress)
Dianna Fuemana emerged on the New Zealand theatre scene in 1999 with her one-woman show Mapaki, the first of five play scripts produced for theatre. She is credited with being the first New Zealand Pasifika playwright to merge the Niue and New Zealand born way of life through professional theatre. Mapaki was selected for public reading at the ‘Women’s Playwright International Festival’ in Athens, Greece 2000. There, she made internationally contacts that were interested in her perspective of the world told through theatre. This interest secured seasons of her work in Amherst, Minneapolis and Hawaii.

Fuemana completed a Master of Creative and Performing Arts with honors in 2005 at the University of Auckland, writing and directing her third play The Packer during her study. The Packer performed to sold out audiences in New Zealand, Australia and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Her most recent play Falemalama was produced during a residency in 2006 at the Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, USA. It was produced in 2008 for the South Pacific Arts Festival, America Samoa and in 2009 played in Auckland/NZ, Niue Island and Toronto/Canada. Her plays Mapaki, The Packer and Falemalama have been published.

For the past eleven years Dianna has worked as a critically acclaimed playwright, director, and actress touring theatre internationally. In addition to this, she has specialized in arts management and mentoring young playwrights in New Zealand and internationally through World Interplay. She is the recent winner of New Zealand’s International Festival of the Arts writing competition, ‘Once upon a Deadline’ 2010.

JEFF LIU (Literary Director, East West Players)
JEFF LIU is the Literary Manager for East West Players and was the Resident Director for Lodestone Theatre Ensemble throughout its ten year run.

Directing credits include the world premieres of EXIT THE DRAGON, the Lodestone inaugural production of TEXAS, MURDEROBILIA (from AMERICAN MONSTERS), TERMINUS AMERICANA (Ovation Award nominee for Best World Premiere), SOLVE FOR X, THE GOLDEN HOUR, GRACE KIM AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS, and IXNAY. He will be directing the world premiere of WRINKLES at EWP in February 2011.

As an actor, he has appeared in such plays as PAPER ANGELS, THE PAJAMA GAME, THE RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE, 12-1-A (with Garrett Wang and Nobu McCarthy), THE ADVENTURES OF B.Y.O.BOY, AZIATIK NATION '04, ROMEO AND JULIET, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, and TWELFTH NIGHT.

An Asian American feature he co-wrote, CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES, was nominated for two IFP Spirit Awards. He also appeared in the short films BEAUTIFUL and HARLEQUIN, and directed two more, QI LIME PIE and GREAT MOMENTS IN ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY.

JON LAWRENCE RIVERA (Director)
Mr. Rivera most recently directed ROAD TO SAIGON at East West Players, JACQUES BREL at the Colony Theatre and OEDIPUS EL REY by Luis Alfaro at the Theatre @ Boston Court. Other recent works include: THE LAST FIVE YEARS by Jason Robert Brown (with an Asian-American cast at East West Players), MISS SAIGON by Schönberg/Boublil, RUBY, TRAGICALLY ROTUND by Boni B. Alvarez, LAWS OF SYMPATHY by Oliver Mayer, THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Susan Kim, SEA CHANGE by Nick Salamone (2009 LA Weekly Award for Direction), THE THIRD FROM THE LEFT by Jean Colonomos (2008 NY Fringe Festival), HILLARY AGONISTES by Nick Salamone (2007 NY Fringe Festival Award for Outstanding Direction), HAVANA BOURGEOIS by Carlos Lacamara (2008 GLAAD nomination), DOGEATERS by Jessica Hagedorn (Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre), CONJUNTO by Oliver Mayer, REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT by Jose Rivera, the Sondheim/Lapine musical INTO THE WOODS , BAREFOOT BOY WITH SHOES ON by Edwin Sanchez. A four-time Ovation Award nominee, he is the founding artistic director of Playwrights' Arena and his productions have garnered over 100 local and international awards.

DIANE RODRIGUEZ (Director, Writer, Performer)
Diane Rodriguez is an OBIE winning theatre artist who directs, writes and performs. Regionally she has directed at South Coast Repertory, Victory Gardens-Chicago, Actors' Theatre of Phoenix, Hartford Stage-Connecticut, Mixed Blood -Minneapolis, City Theatre - Pittsburgh, PA, Cornerstone Theater, the Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theaters, Phoenix Theater in Arizona, Playwrights Arena and the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, among others. She has developed and directed the works of numerous writers including Nilo Cruz's Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams and Dreams of My Father , Lynn Nottage's Fabulation at Sundance Theatre Lab and Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap at Ojai Playwrights Conference. For Mattel, Inc., she wrote the book and was the supervising director for the Latin American tour of the musical Barbie Live/The Princess Adventures that premiered in Buenos Aires in 2010 . She won an OBIE for Performance (Best Ensemble) in 2007 for playing 23 characters in Heather Woodbury's Tale of Two Cities . She is Associate Producer at Center Theatre Group and Director of New Play Production. This season in Los Angeles, she directed at the Odyssey Theatre, and premiered two new plays, Cave Quest by Les Thomas at East West Players and Erik Patterson's Sick for Playwrights Arena.


JOSEPH STERN (Producer, Agency: CAA)
Joseph Stern is a veteran of film, television, and stage. He has produced over 250 episodes of television, as well as numerous long form specials and films. He has had several overall deals and has worked for four studios and six networks. His development for them amounted to over twenty pilot scripts, eleven of which were shot and six that made it to series. Stern produced the pilot of the long running hit show “Law & Order,” and served as the Executive Producer for the first three seasons. It garnered him two of his six Emmy nominations and an additional two Golden Globes.      His groundbreaking CBS special, “Other Mothers,” about alternative lifestyles, was honored with seven Emmy nominations and three wins. Most recently Mr. Stern produced “Our America,” for Showtime. It was selected to play at Sundance and it went on to win the coveted Humanitas Award and four Emmy nominations. During this time he also produced “Judging Amy” and served as Executive Producer for the pilot and the entire six year run.     

Mr. Stern's film work includes “Dad,” for Steven Spielberg, which starred Academy Award winners Jack Lemmon, Olympia Dukakis, and Kevin Spacey and the cult hit “No Man's Land,” with Charlie Sheen. 

No producer has been honored as much in Los Angeles theater. His over 200 awards, 40 of which are Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards, are the most in history. He has produced over 45 plays and is the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards; one from the LADCC and the James A. Doolittle Award for leadership, that he received with August Wilson. His landmark production of “Orphans” moved from his Matrix Theatre, where he is the Producing Artistic Director, to The Steppenwolf and then on to Broadway, before becoming a feature film.

Stern has produced over 50 plays in LA over a 35 yr.period. This year's production of STICKFLY won several LADCC, LAWeekly and Backstage Garland awards. It was a cast of 5 African American and one Caucasian actor about an African American upper middle class family on Marthas Vineyard- a class seldom written about in the theatre. Their next play is NEIGHBORS a rather provocative play about race that we workshopped with the PUBLIC THEATRE in NYC.

Tuesday, June 22 - Beyond the Black Box, The Journey of Playwrights & Producers

JOSHUA FARDON (Playwright)
Joshua Fardon is a writer, composer, director and actor who lives in Los Angeles. His play Shake will be part of the 2010 season at Theatre of NOTE. Previous plays at NOTE include Tenant (just turned into a short film, directed by Kiff Scholl) and This Contract Limits Our Liability - Read It! His one-acts and short musicals have been performed in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. His short film Shattered Bits won a Remi Award from Worldfest Houston and was an official selection of danceswithfilms. As a composer, he wrote the score to Adopt a Sailor, starring Peter Coyote, Bebe Neuwirth and Ethan Peck. He also scored music for NOTE productions of Aristophanes' The Birds and Ruth Margraff's Stadium Devildare. As an actor, he has appeared at The Delacourte, Classic Stage Company, The Mark Taper Forum, The Ahmanson, The Old Globe, Williamstown and The Yale Rep. Film and Television credits include Conspiracy Theory, Volcano, Frasier, The West Wing, and Grounded for Life. He is the Drama Editor of Conntoation Press and a graduate of Northwestern University and the Yale School of Drama.

VJ Foster (Associate Artistic Director, The Actors’ Gang)
VJ Foster…is the Associate Artistic Director of The Actors’ Gang. In his twenty eight year history as a founding member there, VJ has performed in dozens of productions at their home stages in Los Angeles and on national and international tours including extended runs in New York City and London as well as festivals in Greece, Scotland, Australia and Hong Kong. VJ has also taught the Gang performance style in workshops on many university campuses throughout the United States as part of the Gang’s touring arm masterclass residency program. A winner of the Garland Award for his performance as Herod in Salome, VJ was also nominated for an Ovation Award for Lead Actor by the LA Stage Alliance for his 2008 performance as Cotton Slocum in the Gang’s revival of Carnage, A Comedy. His film credits include work with Academy Award winning directors such as Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby and Flags of Our Fathers), Sam Mendes (Jarhead), and in the Oscar nominated films The Shawshank Redemption and The Insider.

DIANNA FUEMANA (Producer, Playwright, Actress)
Dianna Fuemana emerged on the New Zealand theatre scene in 1999 with her one-woman show Mapaki, the first of five play scripts produced for theatre. She is credited with being the first New Zealand Pasifika playwright to merge the Niue and New Zealand born way of life through professional theatre. Mapaki was selected for public reading at the ‘Women’s Playwright International Festival’ in Athens, Greece 2000. There, she made internationally contacts that were interested in her perspective of the world told through theatre. This interest secured seasons of her work in Amherst, Minneapolis and Hawaii.

Fuemana completed a Master of Creative and Performing Arts with honors in 2005 at the University of Auckland, writing and directing her third play The Packer during her study. The Packer performed to sold out audiences in New Zealand, Australia and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Her most recent play Falemalama was produced during a residency in 2006 at the Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, USA. It was produced in 2008 for the South Pacific Arts Festival, America Samoa and in 2009 played in Auckland/NZ, Niue Island and Toronto/Canada. Her plays Mapaki, The Packer and Falemalama have been published.

For the past eleven years Dianna has worked as a critically acclaimed playwright, director, and actress touring theatre internationally. In addition to this, she has specialized in arts management and mentoring young playwrights in New Zealand and internationally through World Interplay. She is the recent winner of New Zealand’s International Festival of the Arts writing competition, ‘Once upon a Deadline’ 2010.

LINA PATEL (Playwright, Actress)
Lina is a critically acclaimed writer and actor. Lina's first play, Sankalpan
(Desire), set in the volatile period of pre-Partition Bengal, was a semi-finalist for the
Sundance Theatre Institute. The play was developed at the New Group, Silk Road
Theater and the Lark Play Development Center, (Playwrights Week) helmed by Ian
Morgan.

A Sherwood Award finalist, Lina was invited by Center Theatre Group to develop
a new play in their nine-month writer’s retreat. Set in New York, The Ragged Claws
examines the value of history and art in a time of crisis through parallel stories of people
adapting to unforeseen and extraordinary circumstances. The Ragged Claws received
two staged readings at Silk Road Theater Project and a Roundtable at the Lark and is a
BAPF finalist. It is slated for a mid-west premier in 2012.

Lina's drama, The Disappearance of Luck (as in Lakshmi, goddess of Fortune) is
an urban tale about what happens when a man's wife disappears and a stranger appears
his life. Luck was developed in a writer’s group led by Jose Rivera. Lina’s new play, an
imagined conversation between Lionel Trilling and Virginia Woolf, Understanding
Eugenia, received a Lark Roundtable. Her next play, Dionollo, a playful contraction of
Apollo and Dionysus, is about two men approaching a certain age and received an early
reading at the New Group. Lina is currently at work on a play about the Depression-era
photographer, Dorothea Lange.

She has been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theater to develop a new play in
2011.

Lina’s first production, That Could Be You, part of The DNA Trail at Silk Road
Theater Project and presented in association with the Goodman Theater, directed by
Steve Scott, received a successful run in Chicago this spring. Her full-length comedy,
Perfect Fit, about five friends at a cross-roads ten years after college, premiers this May
in New York at the Roy Arias Theater, produced by eyeBLINK.
A stage and television actor, Lina has performed at the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival, the Taper, Pasadena Playhouse, the Globe Theaters and has guest starred on
“24”, “CSI”, “Numb3ers” and “Medium.” A voice-over artist, Lina has narrated several
books for Penguin and Random House including Faulkener’s, As I Lay Dying and Arturo
Perez-Reverte’s, The Queen of the South.

KIFF SCHOLL (Director, Actor)
Kiff Scholl has been honing his craft as a director and an actor for over 20 years, 16 of them in Los Angeles. Most recently he directed the smash hit, Kill Me, Deadly at Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood, and All My Sons at the Raven Playhouse. His productions having won seven Backstage Garland awards, five LA Weekly awards, and one Ovation award, Scholl was recently listed as one of LA's emerging and accomplished stage directors by the LA Weekly. Some favorites include La Bête, A Mulholland Christmas Carol, Middle Savage, Act a Lady, The Poseidon Adventure-The Musical!, The Something-Nothing, Sona Tera Roman Hess, The Fan Maroo and This Contract Limits Our Liability–Read It! He looks forward to directing the world premiere of Joshua Fardon's Shake at Theatre of NOTE this summer. Kiff is also an award-winning filmmaker, his feature Scream of the Bikini is winning all sorts of awards on the festival circuit, including Best Director, Best Comedy, and Best of the Fest. As an actor, Kiff has starred in numerous national commercials, as well as Reno 911!, Untold Stories of the ER, Falling, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and Scream of the Bikini.

Wednesday, June 23 - Finding Your Funding

SHERLAN ABESAMIS (Grants Associate, Department of Cultural Affairs)
Sherlan Abesamis is a Grants Associate at the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, where he manages programs including Artist-In-Residence grants, COLA Individual Artist Fellowships, Cultural Exchange International, and grants to Los Angeles area arts and cultural nonprofits. Sherlan received his B.A. in Studio Art from UC Irvine.
JOHN MONEY (Producer, Actor) (Bio coming soon)

KIM ZANTI(Consulant)
Kim currently works as a consultant with the California State Summer School for the Arts, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Urban Possibilities, The Dry Creek Arts Fellowship and others.

Prior to full-time consulting, Kim served as the first Development Manager for Arts For All: Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education, she worked with internal and external teams to develop and implement a comprehensive development strategy that increased and diversified funding.

Prior to joining Arts for All, Kim served for three years as Managing Director of The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, revitalizing fundraising and guiding the organization into a new era of fiscal solvency and sustainable organizational infrastructure.

Kim also served for two years as Vice President of Communications for Namebase, the brand naming consultancy that named the KIA Sorento, Rondo and Forte, UPS Store, Fruitopia and many more. She was also an integral member of the product teams that took CastLiner and Suture from market introduction to multi-million dollar businesses at W.L. Gore and Associates,
the makers of Gore-Tex.®

Kim is a graduate of the LA County Arts Commission’s Executive Leadership Program. She has served as a grants panelist for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the LA County Arts Commission. She has presented fundraising and grant writing workshops for nonprofit organizations, school district arts coordinators and Independent Writers of Southern California and written about the arts for several regional publications and online for The Center for Sustainable Practices in the Arts.

Thursday, June 24 - Taking the Leap: Stage to TV/Film/Digital Media

JOHN BILLINGSLEY
John Billingsley was born in Media, PA, and lived for a time in Huntsville, Alabama and Slidell, Louisiana.  His family finally settled down in Weston, CT, where John had his southern drawl beaten out of him by Yankee children, and where he began to act in school plays, initially “A Christmas Carol,” playing a ferocious (albeit gap-toothed and lisping) Ebenezer Scrooge.

He graduated Bennington College, in Bennington, VT, where he studied theatre with Nicholas Martin and literature with Bernard Malamud, and he moved to Seattle, WA, upon graduation, where, over a fifteen year period, he appeared on regional stages both well and ill regarded.  He toured Europe and portions of the US for a bit with a Milwaukee based experimental theatre company (Theatre X), whose production of “A History of Sexuality” featured him in such disparate roles as Sigmund Freud and the Marquis De Sade's valet.

His theater credits include “Candide,” David Mamet's “Bobby Gould in Hell,” “The Seagull,” “The Birthday Party,” “Great Expectations,” “12th Night” and “ Bitter Bierce, ” a one man show he produced himself about the life and times of Ambrose Bierce. He also played a Berber taxi-cab driver in “Ugly's First World” at The Actor's Gang some years back, appearing opposite his lovely wife Bonita Friedericy, who played Lady Jane Greystoke, aka Mrs. Tarzan. 

In l990, John founded a Seattle based theatre company called Bookit, which was devoted to adapting fiction for the stage and which still flourishes in the Pacific Northwest.  He also helped found an acting studio in Seattle called Freehold, also still flourishing, where he taught for seven years and helped to establish and run the company's theatrical production arm.  Always active in a limited way in Seattle-based film and TV in the '80's, he decided to move to Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue those mediums more aggressively because (l) he was broke and (2) refer back to (1).  After a brief and disastrous stint as a cotton candy spinner (tufts of cotton candy refused to adhere to the paper cones and instead plastered themselves on the faces and garments of frightened children), John caught a break and was cast in “NYPD Blue” as a pathetic and addled child molester.

Other guest star roles followed:  “ NCIS, ” “ Me and Lee, ” “ World According to Barnes, ” “ Suspect, ” “ Ghost Whisperer, ” “ Standoff, ” “The Practice,” “Profiler,” “Pretender,” “Marshall Law,” “Nash Bridges,” “The X-Files,” “Time of Your Life,” “Judging Amy” and “Arli$$,” among others. (NOTE TO PUBLICIST: CHECK OUT IMDB FOR FULL LIST)  In l999, Stephen Spielberg cast him as Prof. Miles Ballard in “The Others.” Additional guest starring work includes “The West Wing,” “Six Feet Under,” “Gideon's Crossing,” “Star Gate,” “The Huntress”, “ 24 ” , “ Grey ' s Anatomy ” , “Angel”, “ Eli Stone ” and various “ CSI ”s .  In 2000, Billingsley was cast as Dr. Phlox in “Star Trek: Enterprise.”  Dr. Phlox was an eccentric alien with a whimsical sense of humor, and John wore the requisite rubber head for four seasons.  Billingsley also has appeared on “Nip/Tuck,” “Cold Case,” “The Closer” and, in a recurring role, played the evil Vice-President's hapless (and toothless) brother on “Prison Break.”

In 2006, John was cast as a series regular on the ABC show “ The Nine ” where he played Egan Foote, a repressed and depressed underachiever. He co-starred with Tim Daly, Kim Raver, Scott Wolf, and Chi McBride. RIP.

Films along the way include “Out of Time” opposite Denzel Washington, “ American Summer, ” “High Crimes,” “The Glass House,” “White Oleander,” “Born to be Wild,” “I Love You To Death,” “A Cinderella Story,” “12 Dogs of Christmas,” and "2012", where he survived the destruction of the world. Should there be a "2013", he is available.

SEAMUS DEVER (Actor)
Seamus Dever has been living and working in Los Angeles for over ten years. He moved there after receiving his MFAs from Carnegie-Mellon University and The Moscow Art Theatre. In his career he has fairly evenly divided his time between Theatre and Television.

Seamus has more than 60 plays under his belt. Some notable productions include iWITNESS at The Mark Taper Forum, PERA PALAS at the Theatre@Boston Court, CLUTTER at The Colony Theatre, and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE at The Greenway Court Theatre. As Alex in “Clockwork” he was Nom'd for an Ovation and LADCC award and won a Backstage Garland Award for Lead Actor.

Known mostly for his work as Det. Kevin Ryan on ABC's “Castle”, Seamus also spent some time as Dr. Getti on “Army Wives” and Dr. Ian Devlin on “General Hospital”. He has guest starred on Dark Blue, CSI, Ghost Whisperer, Mad Men, CSI:Miami, Close to Home, NCIS, Threshold, CSI:NY, Charmed, JAG, Cold Case, Without a Trace, and Crossing Jordan.

Seamus taught at The New York Film Academy and The Acting Corps specializing in Movement and Voice. He is a Lifetime Member of The Actor's Studio and The Antaeus Company.

Most recently he has starred in ‘Behind The Gates' at the Strasberg Theater, ‘ The Goat' at the Mark Taper Forum, and ‘Mother Courage' at the La Jolla Playhouse

While co-artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theater-LA, James produced and directed over 20 new plays. His production of ‘ Cats and Dogs' jointly won the MCI jury award at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.

James directed the world premiere of ‘ In Heat' at the Lost Studio to rave reviews and the world premiere of ‘ Bright Boy, the Passion of Robert MacNamara' at the Electric Lodge.

On Television, James directed several episodes of FOX ‘s Beverly Hills 90210 and went on to direct episodes of the award winning drama, Once And Again on ABC.

Well known to TV audiences as ‘Jim Walsh' on ‘ 90210' , James has had guest starring roles on close to fifty series including Criminal Minds,Jericho, Nip/Tuck, Medium, Close to Home, Boston Legal, CSI, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, West Wing, Once and Again, Las Vegas, Without A Trace, Dharma & Greg, Chicago Hope, Robbery Homicide, Strong Medicine, and Ally McBeal .

Among James' many film credits are S.W.A.T. , Guess Who , One True Thing , Junior , Defending Your Life , 84 Charing Cross Road , Fat Man and Little Boy , Fatal Attraction, Cocktail, Big, Leaving Normal, and the voice of ‘Potiphar' in the Dreamworks animated film, Joseph - King of Dreams.

BONNIE FREDERICY
Bonita Friedericy was born in Charlottesville, Virginia and grew up in Palos Verdes, California.  It was in 1985 that she began her professional acting career when she replaced Jennifer Tilly in the critically acclaimed production of “Tartuffe,” starring alongside Jessica Walter. She is the recipient of the Natalie Schaeffer Award for Excellence in Acting, and received an Ovation Award (L.A.'s version of the “Tony Award”) for her role in “Our Country's Good” at the Colony Theatre. Other stage appearances include: “Ugly's First World” at the Actor's Gang Theatre;  “I Ought To Be In Pictures” as Gregory Itzin's (“24”) girlfriend; an award winning appearance in “Toys in the Attic”; and David and Amy Sedaris' play “The Book of Liz” (as Liz) at the Blank Theatre.

From theatre, a career in film grew, beginning in 1998 with “The Pornographer,” directed by Doug Atchison, who later went on to write and direct “Akeela and the Bee” in which Bonita also had a role. Other work in film includes: “The Stepdaughter” (alongside Andrea Roth of “Rescue Me”); “Room 10” (Jennifer Anniston's directorial debut alongside Robin Wright Penn); “12 Dogs of Christmas” (starring alongside her husband, John Billingsley); “Christmas With the Kranks (with Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis);” and “Sleeping Dogs Lie” (directed by Bobcat Goldthwait).  She will appear in upcoming films “State of Play” (starring Russell Crowe), "Happiness Runs" (with Rutger Hauer) and the much anticipated  "Percy Jackson: Lightening Thief" (directed by Chris Columbus).

On television, Bonita has appeared on over 50 shows. She's best known for her current work as “General Diane Beckman” giving orders every episode on NBC's “Chuck.” Previously, Bonita held recurring parts on “The Starter Wife” (USA), “The West Wing” (NBC), “The Nine” (ABC), “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (WB) and the upcoming mini-series “twentsixmiles”. Other memorable, recent guest-stars include: “Criminal Minds,” “My Name Is Earl,” “Bones,” “CSI,” “Monk” and “Without a Trace.”

Bonita lives in West Hollywood with her incredibly talented husband, John Billingsley and their two cats, Solomon and Leo.

KIRSTEN VANGSNESS (Actor) (Bio coming soon)