We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dawna Lee Heising. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dawna Lee below.

Dawna Lee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I am a working actress, and I am constantly training and studying to improve my craft. Education and training are extremely important in any career, including in the film industry. I earned an A.A. in Theater Arts from Fullerton College, where I studied the Stanislavski method with Sal Romeo. I later joined Sal‘s Friends & Artists Theatre company on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. I won Miss San Francisco Universe and was discovered for “Fantasy Island,” where I played Miss Hawaii, while attending U.C. Berkeley.

I left the film industry to earn a B.S. in Business Management and MBA at Pepperdine University and earn an MBA. I worked as a marketing director for hardware and software technology companies. During my business career, I built four marketing departments from the ground up, managing public relations, advertising, business plans and trade shows. I worked my way up to becoming a marketing vice president for an innovative point-of-sale (POS) software company.

I returned to the entertainment industry full-time fifteen years ago. My MBA from Pepperdine University and business experience helped prepare me for success in the film industry. I have had the great fortune to collaborate with many mentors in the film industry. Aki Aleong has been an incredible mentor, and I am proud to be the vice president of his Mustard Seed Media Group. I have studied the Uta Hagen method with Matthew Arkin (Alan Arkin’s son) at South Coast Repertory, the Stanislavsky method with Sal Romeo, the Strasberg method at U.C. Berkeley and Cypress College, and Shakespearean acting with Karole Foreman. I am currently studying improv at There Is No Box studios in San Pedro, and will be doing Lady Macbeth’s Act 5, Scene 1 monologue in an upcoming actors showcase.

I have a very driven, achievement-oriented, Type A personality, and am never satisfied with the status quo. I am always striving to become a better mother, daughter, wife, grandmother, actor, and person. Many years ago at U.C. Berkeley, I was assigned a book called “The Psychology of Winning” by Dr. Denis Waitley. His philosophy of being positive and goal oriented to achieve success really resonated with me, and I have followed his principles ever since.

I have always tried to follow “Carpe Diem” and make the most out of every day because life is short, and we are not promised tomorrow. I have taught my children that the sky is the limit to what we can accomplish in this life, and we are only limited by how hard we are willing to work to achieve our goals. I raised my daughters to realize the value of a good education. My eldest daughter Marissa is a COO for a software company and my youngest daughter Dr. Misty Richards is a psychiatrist at UCLA, as well as a Fulbright Scholar. Both of my daughters are incredible mothers, and I am extremely proud of them.

My career goals are to do lead roles in high quality projects. I want to become the best actor that I can be. I have learned through experience that a great script is the backbone of a great project, and I am becoming much more selective in the roles that I accept. I started my acting career in big budget films and in network television, and I want to return to that level of quality.

The best advice that I can give to anyone is to:
1. Prepare yourself with a good education as a basis, and then keep training after that. There are so many talented people in Hollywood with the best education from major universities that you need to be well-trained just to keep up. Some of the best training experiences I have had have been on stage. I played Mei Li in “Flower Drum Song”, Liat in “South Pacific”, and Layla in “Murder at Thick City.”

2. Another important thing to prepare yourself for is the rejection that is a part of show business. Actors get rejected every day, from submissions to auditions to callbacks and then reviews. Along the way, as you become more successful, internet trolls emerge to try to tear you down, and other industry professionals may start to view you as competition. Just believe in yourself and your skills, surround yourself with supportive family, friends and management who are happy for your success, and stay POSITIVE!

3. It is important to keep exploring new acting techniques to reach your highest potential. I learned the Strasberg method at Cypress College and U.C. Berkeley, studied the Stanislavsky method at Fullerton College and the Friends & Artists Theatre with Sal Romeo, and then studied the Uta Hagen method privately with June Barfield. I studied the Uta Hagen method at South Coast Repertory with Matthew Arkin, Alan Arkin’s son, and Shakespearean acting with Karole Foreman. I am now studying improvisation at There Is No Box Studios in San Pedro.

Dawna Lee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have acted in over 250 feature films and have won over 790 film festival awards. I am the vice president of Aki Aleong’s Mustard Seed Media Group and earned a B.S. Degree in Business Management and MBA from Pepperdine University. My uncle is legendary DP Tak Fujimoto (“Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia,” “Sixth Sense”), and my cousins David Wong and George Daugherty received a Primetime Emmy Award for their televised Broadway production of “Peter and the Wolf on Broadway”.

I have received over 470 Best Actress awards for feature films and television. I won the Living Legend Award at the 2024 Universe Multicultural Film Festival, received the Elite Martial Arts Spirit Award at the 2023 Golden Gate Hall of Honors Martial Arts Awards, and won “Actress & Action Star of the Year” at the 2021 USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame Awards. I was inducted into the WorldFilmGeek.com Hall of Fame for 2023, alongside Diane Franklin and Mark Patton. I won “Media Star of the Year” at the 2024 Golden Gate Martial Arts Hall of Honors Awards.

I was honored to work with the great Eddie Griffin in Param Gill’s “Bad President”, which premiered at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, and with legendary star Tom Arnold in Adam Werth’s “Alien Storm” from Mahal Empire Productions. I play Lisa in “PTSD: A Soldier’s Revenge,” which stars Daniel Baldwin, Tom Sizemore, and Robert LaSardo, and Ms. Fairchild in Diana Carter’s “Recipes for Love”, starring Daniel Baldwin and Nicholas Turturro. I feel that I have learned the most from collaborating with my great friends director Craig Railsback and editor Dr. Renah Wolzinger, who live in Huntington Beach near me. We have done the award-winning film “Down and Out in Vampire Hills,” Lady Macbeth’s Act 5 Scene 1 monologue in “Dark Classics” and B. Luciano Barsuglia’s “A Bard for the Ages: Shakespeare’s Timeless Effect”, and Hamlet’s Act 5 Scene 1 monologue for Tony Mardon’s “Witches of the Sands”. I was assigned Maggie the Cat’s Act 1, Scene 1 monologue in my first year at South Coast Repertory. Craig, Renah, and I finally made it into a film that I am enormously proud in May 2024, and it has received numerous film festival awards.

In 2023, I played Chrystal (Miss Third World) in Tom Lopilato’s comedy “WordLotto.” It was written by Tom, directed Johnny Baca, filmed and edited by Mark Andrews, and cast by Leila Sharafi. It has won over 150 film festival awards, including a Telly Award in 2024. Mark was the DP on “Bad President,” and I am grateful to him for recommending me for Chrystal. A film festival judge wrote in his notes: “Dawna Lee Heising had one of the most visually striking characters I’ve ever seen in a film!” I am very thankful for this amazing compliment!

I am trained in Tang Soo Do martial arts, ballet, and pole dancing. My martial arts KwanJangNim is Grand Master Rick St. Clair. I am a former Miss Los Angeles Chinatown, Ms. US World, Ms. World, Ms. Universe, Miss San Francisco Universe, Miss Orange County Universe, Miss Orange County America, Miss California Hemisphere and Mrs. California United States, among many other titles. I was honored to be the Queen of the 2019 Hollywood Silver Screen Film Festival, the 2018 WIND International Film Festival Queen and the 2021 Kaiju International Film Festival Queen. I am a long-time member of SAG-AFTRA.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I won Miss San Francisco Universe while attending U.C. Berkeley, and was discovered for “Fantasy Island”, where I played Miss Hawaii. I played Cleo the Snake Dancer in the last episode of “Magnum P.I.” with Tom Selleck, a cage dancer in Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”, the village sorceress in “Forbidden Warrior”, a ghost in “My Science Project”, a lady of the night in “Bring ‘Em Back Alive”, “Matt Houston” and “Tales of the Gold Monkey”, and the Hawaiian Governor’s wife in “The New Gidget”, which was directed by Ted Lange. In my early acting career, I had small parts in very BIG projects.

Early in my career, I auditioned for the role of Cleo the Snake Dancer on the final episode of “Magnum P.I.” with Tom Selleck. “Magnum P.I.” was shot in Hawaii where it was illegal to film with snakes, so they were looking for an actress in California. I was so excited when I got the role, and I thought it was my BIG break! I danced with the snake all day with the trainer just off camera. When the two-part finale screened, I saw that my dance with the snake had turned into a HUGE billboard behind Tom Selleck sitting on the curb. I was disappointed, but I ended up getting my long-time agent Ray Cavaleri from the role.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to become the best actress that I can be and to perform in great roles that I am proud of. I have been a Marketing Vice President, a pageant Queen and a swimsuit model so my goal was never to just become famous. I believe in education and training to understand your craft. That’s why I have studied different Acting methods to really understand how to give the best performance. I am my own worst critic and the satisfaction that I get from feeling that I have really become the character that I am portraying is priceless!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dawnaleeheising.me
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnaleeheising
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawnaleeheising
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/dawnaleeheising
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dawnaleeheising
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/eyeonentertainment
• Other: https://www.dawnaleeheisingofficial.com

Image Credits
Photographer Mark Oeffler