Lee Darnell

American actor Lee Darnell was born in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. Over the years he lived throughout N.C., Savannah, GA, and New Orleans, LA. He has traveled across the country and many foreign nations but always ended up back in Tarheel country. He now resides with his wife and daughter in eastern, North Carolina. Lee is an experienced law enforcement officer. He began work in the profession as a dispatcher in 1987 and attended the police academy in 1991. He has served in multiple law enforcement roles, to include Chief of Police. He is currently a Sergeant, serving as the Public Relations and Information Officer as well as the Coordinator of the Crime Stoppers program for a North Carolina Sheriff's Office. Lee has also been active in EMS (Emergency Medical Services) since 1987, rising from a volunteer firefighter and first responder, to paramedic, educator, administrator, and government regulator. While at work and at home, Lee has always had a passion for serving the public, especially those who really need a champion such as our children, those suffering from mental illness, domestic violence victims, the disabled, and our citizens who are stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty, addiction, crime, and violence. He is specially trained as a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) member who provides assistance to special populations to help divert them away from jail and short term (dead end) solutions and into more positive opportunities for help. Lee first began acting in stage productions in elementary school. He stayed active in small town theater until 1987 when he took his last curtain call. At that point, his love of theater was set aside in order to pursue life, romance, adventure, and all that crazy teenager stuff. Still to this day, he has not yet returned to the stage, but won't rule it out when the time is right. In 2006 the acting bug bit once again when he stumbled onto a film set as an extra. After that first day on set he knew he could never turn back and has been working hard ever since to make up for two decades lost. He has acted in several dozen films, TV shows, commercials, industrial projects, and more since 2006. He hasn't struck it rich and will never be famous (infamous perhaps) but he is having the time of his life entertaining others. Lee says that he uses his love of people and his overactive empathy, built by decades of seeing both the glories and horrors of humanity at work, to build characters to entertain, educate, and add to our culture. He believes it to be such a blessing to take the triumphs and tragedies of human existence then transform them into roles so the rest of the world can have that experience, for better or worse. Lee continues to grow as a person, exploring new challenges and living "the dream". He hopes that he can keep spreading his love, smile, and optimism to everyone he meets with hope that he can make a difference. Now he is embarking on writing, producing, and directing his own projects. (Jan. 2020)