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Theresa O'Keefe Maska was born in Huntington, New York. Her father, Richard O'Keefe (1928-1993), was a native New Yorker and worked as an insurance adjuster for most of his life. Her mother, Mary O'Keefe ( née Vita) (1925-1995), was a dancer, singer, and after marriage, homemaker. Maska's maternal grandparents were from Palermo, Sicily, and her paternal grandparents were from Cork, Ireland. Both sets of grandparents came to the USA during the great waive of immigration in the early 1900's. Maska spent her early childhood on Long Island in Islip, New York. She is an only child, and her parents loved to travel. So, she was never in one place for any great length of time. Her family tended to move every 2 or 3 years. Her father spent 25 years as an insurance adjuster in New York, and then in the early 1970's decided to move his family "somewhere else." Her family spent three months "trying out" different locations around the USA, and finally her parents decided to officially move to Northern California, at least for a few years. Richard O'Keefe got into the home building business for a few years while living in Santa Rosa, California, but this did not last and the family moved to Southern California a few years later. Maska then spent the next two decades moving all over Southern California. She attended mostly Catholic schools while growing up, and she graduated from high school in her junior year. She went on to attend Riverside Community College. Years later she would attend several colleges while adding to her work skills, but she was never satisfied in one type of "conventional" job. During her scholastic career she was an avid singer and could always be found in glee club or choir. She was dramatic as a child and performed in a few school plays. When she became an adult she ventured into plus-size modeling, but the field did not really exist, and she got a lot of push back from photographers. She grew a bit disillusioned, but then her father passed away in December of 1993. She went back to working a "regular" job, so she could be more supportive to her mother who was distraught at the passing of her husband of 39 years. In February, 1995 her mother passed away suddenly, and at this time she really threw herself into singing. She won several local singing contests and tried out for several TV shows that showcased new talent. She passed the auditions to perform on several shows over the next couple of years, but the shows were always cancelled before she could appear on TV for her chance at stardom. However, she didn't let these setbacks dim her eternal hope. Maska got married to Robert Barba in 1996, and by then had her own mobile karaoke business. This was her way to to keep her dream alive. However, karaoke wasn't giving her what she really wanted, and over the years her marriage started to crumble. Her and Barba separated in 2003 and finally divorced in 2005. Maska worked several jobs and tried her hand at several entrepreneurial attempts, but her desire to be in front of the camera never really waned. She met Lance Maska in 2010 at a metaphysical church they both attended, but they did not start dating until October of 2011. The two moved in together in August of 2012 and were married on August 1, 2015. Her husband encouraged his new wife to follow her dream of acting and singing. So, she took some time and did some auditions. She got a role as litigant, Donna Spencer, on an episode of "America's Court with Judge Ross." She is always on the look out for roles that show women of larger sizes to be just as relevant and engaging as their thinner counterparts.