Danielle Butler

First of all I would like to say thank you for including me in this reunion. As some of you may remember, I didn’t actually graduate from Los Alamos. In fact, LAHS was two high schools prior to the one that gave me my diploma. Nevertheless, it was the one I attended the longest, have the most memories of and through which I have retained the most friendships.

After graduation, I traveled a bit through the US and Europe and after two years decided to go to back to school. I went to UNM, graduating with a theatre degree. Shortly after, I had a minor surgery go terribly wrong, nearly died and spent another few months recuperating from that. Fortunately, I healed completely but after this life altering event, I decided that I wanted to do something completely different and took a job as an au pair near Geneva in Switzerland. I wanted to live in another country for awhile and speak another language. Well, I thought I already spoke French but I was quickly disabused of that idea in my first few weeks there. I stayed in Switzerland for two years working, traveling and occasionally performing, and then decided to go back to school (again). I wasn’t really ready to leave Europe so I ended up moving to London to do my graduate work. I went to the Central School of Speech and Drama which is this really cool and established theatre school that is, sadly, veritably unknown here in the US. After four years of living out of three suitcases, I missed so many things -- from the odd (my own kitchen implements) to the more normal (my family and friends) -- I had to come back. I suffered months of teasing from my siblings and Cheri (Wheeler) Guy because of my funky accent – which has been back to normal for years now, thank you very much.

I was in the process of moving to New York, thinking it a great compromise between NM and London when I took a quick trip to Los Angeles – for a visit – and decided to move there instead. Just for a little while – just to see if I liked it… Eight years later I am still here. I was still acting when I moved here. I spent some time in an improv troupe and did a few independent films/projects and whatnot. The life of an actor being what it is in Los Angeles and my desire to “do more” led me to strive to work behind the camera instead of angling to get in front of it.

I spent a couple years working in physical production and then moved into film and TV development – which is basically finding or thinking up new ideas and putting the pieces together to sell them. I worked for the production company that developed and produced  the television show Ghost Whisperer (among other things). I left that after the show’s first season and was running development for another company when the writers’ strike happened last November. Those strike months really put a damper on the business out here. Since the first of the year, I have been working freelance. I have had a very eclectic time – cast an online commercial, taught a class, worked in PR – had a sad moment of finding myself in the background of a TMZ clip – yikes. I am also still putting together my own projects to take out this season.

In the midst of all of this, I haven’t yet married nor do I have any children as of now. I do have a remarkably good looking and well preserved eighteen year old cat as well as a great guy in my life and an awesome step-dog.  I am very much looking forward to saying hello to folks at the reunion and seeing how we have changed over the last twenty – this number hardly makes sense to me -- years.

Me and my guy, Jerry, at the Staples Center just after a Lakers game

LAHS Olions Play - Rehearsal for Murder

Me and my cousin at Dodger Stadium

Me and my cousin at a friend's birthday party - we were required to wear
fake moustaches

Me and my niece at her HS graduation this year