Darlene's Bio
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Darlene Ava Williams - Bio



Biography

Born and raised in the circus, Darlene Williams has performed with wild animals and amazing people under the Big Top since the age of four.

Elephants have always played an integral part in her life because of her father, Rex Williams, the number one elephant trainer in the country. (Most famous elephant keeper and trainer by EEKMA members.)

At seven, she began training for circus aerial acts. Her mother Ava (Coronas) Williams, a fourth-generation Czech aerialist, taught her Spanish web, trapeze, and wire walking. Darlene has performed with Circus Vargas, and numerous other shows throughout the world. She continued to work in the circus until she was 20, and then came off the road to pursue a college degree. She earned a B.A. in Communications and won the Delta Psi Omega drama award for best actress in a leading role, later moving on to work as a stuntwoman in television, feature films, and commercials.

Besides her circus and aerial skills, she has worked with some of Hollywood's finest stuntmen and directors including Tim Burton (Big Fish & Planet of the Apes), Michael Mann (Collateral), Ang Lee (the Hulk), Ron Howard (The Grinch) to name a few. Darlene's love of live performing continues with her contributions to live shows such as Las Vegas' THE SIREN'S OF TI, where she trained and choreographed the aerial and bull whip portions of the show. With her circus an aerial skills, Darlene helped train the young and adult actors for the wire work stunts in the Cat in the Hat and Cirque Du Freak and was one of the circus advisors to Big Fish. Darlene completed 67 episodes as Pamela Anderson's stunt double in VIP.

She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and also served on the Academy's very first Stunt Peer Group Executive Committee. She is an original board member of the Stuntwomen's Foundation (charity) and is one of the founding members of V10 Women Stunt Professionals an elite organization of professional stunt women.

Written by: J. Batchler