Vanessa Cloke

Since her minor role in the movie Vice, Vanessa Dimitropoulos (legal and maiden name) has stepped away from acting in order to focus on the larger life roles which acting led her to experience. She is the founder of The Escaped Goat, a campaign with the mission to reform psychological abuse laws and educate law enforcement on the epidemic of an abuse that leaves no broken bones or bruises. Her journey to advocate stemmed from an all too common story of being discredited by someone close, leading to false stories to the police. Vanessa has dedicated her time to interviewing victims and pursuing collaborations with the goal of generating not only awareness, but change. She believes that psychological abuse laws need to be treated with the same criminal prosecution as physical and sexual abuse, and that The United States needs to catch up to the progressive psychological abuse reforms implemented by the UK, France, Ireland, and Scotland. Vanessa grew up in Paramount, CA and received her BA in Communications from Chapman University. She then owned and operated a children's dance company in San Diego with a student base of 300. While still actively involved in her company, and after a short stint as the bartender on San Clemente Island located 80 miles off the coast of Southern California, Vanessa moved to Rota, Spain, where she frequently traveled, wrote the children's book Spotty Dotty (self-published in 2018 with illustrator Zelda Vinciguerra), and worked as a Library Technician. Her next adventure brought her to New Orleans, just a few days after the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. At the time, NOLA was a major Film & TV hub, giving Vanessa the opportunity to follow her heart and finally pursue the career she had wanted since a child. She also became a real estate agent, worked at Cineworks post production facility, and eventually started her own video successful audition taping service as well as Shoot My Reel; a demo reel service for actors in need of footage in order obtain representation. Before leaving New Orleans for Los Angeles during The Big Short's Oscar nomination and ultimate win, Vanessa produced two web-series and a short film, the latter of which won Best Drama at the Louisiana International Film Festival. Vanessa has not completely left the Film and TV industry. She is the producing a feature film and developing a media company which will showcase interviews, PSA's, and video books revolving around the subject of narcissistic abuse. When she is not producing, writing, advocating, or studying the martial arts form Krav Maga, Vanessa spends her time dancing, traveling, creating entrepreneurial concepts, and continuing her spiritual journey.