Born:   David Scott Keller

Place:   Petoskey, MI / Little Traverse Hospital

Date:   February 28

Parents: Richard Dean and Christine Ann

I began my life with two wonderful parents and two older sisters, Victoria and Angela.  We were to grow up in a home in Harbor Springs, MI on a bluff overlooking the scenic town and harbor, on Lake Michigan.  This home is where the magic, for me, began.

I recall playing in my parents room once, jumping on their bed.  I was alone and I fell back onto the bed giggling.  I looked up at the light above the bed, and in its fixtures, I saw an eye.  One single eye staring back at me, unblinking.  This eye became my friend and we would have several conversations.  So began my wild imagination.

When I was very young, construction began on a new family home out in the country near my Grandmother Keller.  It was at this time that my family was separated.  My mother and father went through a divorce and both remarried. 

My mother received custody of my sisters and I and we ended up in Federal Way, Washington, eventually.  But not after many adventures across the country in a Cadillac and trailer.  My step-father was a travelling entertainer, he did a tribute to Burl Ives.  And he booked gigs all across the country.  I even got to go to the Grand Ole Opry where Dolly Parton and other country music legends have and still perform to this day.  I mostly remember the tornado, however, in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn, in Little Rock, Arkansas.  We were in our trailer having dinner when a tornado blew through, turning over our trailer with us inside.  Lucky?  Yes.  Scared?  Probably, although in my head, Dorothy survived a tornado and look where she ended up and the adventures she had.

So life consisted of state fairs, Elks and Eagles lodges and hotel lounges.  But we eventually took root in Washington State near Seattle, and my acting began.

I first began acting in elementary school.  My first production was "Gracie at the Bat".  I played an outfielder, Lefty,  to my best friend of years, Heather's, Righty.  It was a take on the story Casey at the Bat.  I found something I really loved, and it wasn't baseball.  It was acting.

My first "big" role as a kid was in another elementary school production titled "Goldie Locks Strikes Again".  I played the sinister nemesis of Goldie Locks, McEvil Weasel.  This role was one that solidified my desire to share with and entertain people.

Around this same time, a teacher of mine found a talent I hadn't really entertained before...creative writing.  Her name was Mrs. Borgeson and she was very enthusiastic and encouraging.  So much so that she submitted a story I wrote into the Young Author's Conference, and I was chosen.  Two years in a row.

Soon, though, I got the itch for acting again, and my mom was on my side both for writing and acting.  Auditions for Puget Sound Musical Theatre came up and she took me to the auditions.  I made it into a youth show called "The Music Machine", a musical.  It was an ensemble cast and I shared a duet with an old school chum, Maria.  The song was called, "Peace" and I still long for that to come true today and every day.

Now that I had done a community project, I was on the mailing list for the company so it wasn't too long before we received audition notices.  "Oliver" auditions were coming up and I really wanted to be a part of that show.  I went to the primary audition and got called back.  Although I was cast as a pick-pocket, I was also the under-study for the Artful Dodger.  My sister Angie was also cast in this production as a bar wench.   Good times, those.  Right before times got dark.  Acting would have to take a back seat to the drama that unfolded in reality.

My mom went through her second divorce, had a new man move in, one of my sister's moved back to Michigan and after a few years, I found myself living on the streets of Seattle.  If you are looking for details on these events,  you will have to wait for the book (I am six chapters into writing one).  There is too much to put here.  Suffice it to say, through a series of circumstances, there was no where else for me to go.

So, I was a teenager living a desperate life on the streets of Seattle.  But hope came in the guise of an organization, The Orion Center.  The Orion Center was a multi-service center for homeless and "at-risk" youth.  One of the programs they had was a theatre program which I quickly became involved in, and even excelled at.  The first production I did with The Orion Theatre Project was "Celebration".  I was in the chorus, but I also realized I was doing something I loved and it kept me off the streets and fed.  Next came the biggest surprise an 18 y/o street kid can receive.  I was cast in The Orion Theatre Project's ambitious and difficult production of "The Man of La Mancha"...as the lead!  I portrayed Cervantes/Don Quixote' at 18 y/o.  This project was VERY successful and got us on the local news, radio programs and we even toured internationally!  Well, one show in Vancouver, British Columbia, but still, things were looking up.

I now had people that believed in me.  An acting coach, mentor and friend.  A fan club consisting of a mother and her daughter, who were inspired by the character.  And a partial scholarship into Cornish College of the Arts as a theatre major (Thank you, Betty, wherever you are, in peace).

Being an impressionable young man who missed out on a traditional adolescence,  school soon became too much for me and I ran.  Dropped out.  I became caught up, all too soon, in my destructive ways which is how I found myself in San Francisco. It would be 10 years and only 1 screen test later before I would act again.

One dark and lonely night, I was literally picked up by a man, from the street where I laid.  He took me to his home, cleaned me up and gave me a job, and hope.

The years passed and I came into a relationship that ended in death due to complications with AIDS in 1995.  It seemed that nothing I touched would be gold...again.

Then came "West Side Story".  An upscale community theatre company called SCP was auditioning.  I had gone to an audition for them before for "A Chorus Line" but ran off the stage prior to auditions after seeing the talent around me.  As it turned out, I got cast as one of the Jet's,  A-Rab.  I would soon be balancing a show, a relationship, and a full time job and I was scared.  But out of this production came a number of other roles for SCP and West Valley College.  Please see my resume' page under Theatre for details: http://www.davidskeller.citymax.com/page/page/1899825.htm

Unfortunately, my musical theatre experience would be derailed when I injured my ankle while dancing with Miss San Jose at a cast party.  We took a fall and even after surgery, my ankle will never be the same.  But alas, maybe I could finally fulfill my true dream of film acting.  And I have.

I am currently representing myself.  But I am acting on film in everything from an EBAY University commercial to my first lead role in a feature film.  Life has it's share of ups and downs, but I am content.  And proud that I brought my childhood dream of sharing with people to fruition, through acting.  My passion.

Peace!

David Scott Keller - April 12, 2005