Inspiration Week

During the month of December, Bonnie has been featuring "awesomeosity" each week in her column.  She put out a call for people to nominate their friends in the industry for being awesome.  What they do that inspires and motivates.  I sent her an email early on and I'm not sure if it will get featured or not but I hope so.  I gotta tell you - it was tough figuring out only one friend to nominate.  I have been so fortunate to develop strong friendships with strong people since moving out here.  And each of my friends has been doing so much and they all deserve to be recognized for their passion and drive.  So, inspired by Bonnie, I would like to dedicate this week on my blog to my friends.  I'm going to feature someone each day and tell you a bit about them.  

First up........the person I wrote to Bonnie about............

Kevin Knight

Kevin and I met in Ivana Chubbuck's Masters Class and, having been his scene partner, I can tell you that he is a gifted actor and artist.  He is a friend that is always looking to lift his friends up, sending quick emails with a motivational quote or a thought about pursuing dreams and he just radiates positivity.  But there is more....You see, Kevin bears a striking resemblance to a young Sugar Ray Leonard.  And Sugar's life story has resonated with Kevin.  So Kevin did some researching and found out that there has been a biopic about Sugar Ray languishing in development for years and there have been recent rumblings about it finally getting made.  So what does Kevin do?  For over a year now, Kevin has been training.  He is boxing several times a week, sometimes going to train twice in a day.  He studied Krav Maga and earned his first belt.  He is letting everyone know what he is working toward:  He wants to play Sugar Ray.  On top of that, it seems like there are all these strange coincidences of "degrees of separation" that continue to happen.  He has met a handful of people who have a direct connection to Sugar Ray and I have a feeling that Sugar has heard Kevin's name.  Kevin is doing all of this knowing full well that this picture may never even see the light of day.  But he is going to be ready if the time comes.  And he is giving himself a fighting chance.   

His passion for acting and for making dreams happen continually inspires.  Whether the Sugar Ray film is ever made is not the point.  He now has skills that will take him wherever he needs to go and a work ethic that puts most people to shame.  Kevin is an example of hustle and determination and I am lucky to count him as a friend.  

Kevin's IMDB page is http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1577871/ .