Dawn Wells
Dawn Wells is an actress, author, journalist, motivational speaker, adventurer, businesswoman, entrepreneur, chef and volunteer. She is best known as Mary Ann on the longest running show in the history of television syndication, "Gilligan’s Island." However, there is much more to Wells than Mary Ann. Not only has she performed in more than 60 theatrical productions from Neil Simon to Tennessee Williams, but has also been in more than 120 television shows and a number of feature films.
Within the last three months Wells' credits include: co-creator and co-executive producer of the hit CBS Movie-of-the-Week, "Surviving Gilligan’s Island," which she hosted as well. While producing the movie, Well’s flew to Michigan to appear in a film called "Super Sucker," written, produced and directed by Jeff Daniels. She was a guest star on the NBC series "Three Sisters," while also appearing as one of the survivors on Jay Leno’s "Tonight Show" five weeks in a row. Dawn Wells guest starred on the TV Food Network program "Chef Du Jour" for a week, and wrote her own cookbook called "Mary Ann’s ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Cookbook," which consists mainly of three generations of her family recipes. Wearing her producer’s hat, Wells co-produced and hosted her own female fishing show called "Dawn Wells Reel Adventures," featuring fly fishing from all over the world. She also hosted and co-produced the Children’s Miracle Network broadcast for Mid-Missouri and a "Gilligan’s Island" retrospective for the E channel. Wells has several more projects in the wings including a Movie-of-the-Week with director and producer Deborah Reinisch called "A Higher Place in Heaven" written by Pamela Parker. In addition, Wells established the Dawn Wells’ Film Actors Boot Camp near Jackson Hole, WY, where during one intense week during the summer actors learn the art of acting on-camera as well as the business of the film industry. Even though she is in constant demand for personal appearance and speaking engagements, Wells found time to create a line of clothing for the physically challenged called the Wishing Wells Collection. Wells serves on many boards including as a trustee of Stephens College, one of her alma maters. She is also a graduate of the University of Washington. She serves on the University of Missouri Children’s Hospital Advisory Board and on the Advisory Board of Women in Film and Video. An avid world traveler, Wells has climbed the mountains in Rwanda to view the mountain gorillas, canoed in the Solomon Islands where women had never before been, and she has been on four safaris as well as flying around the world on the Concorde. |