Biography for
Donna Williams (VI) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1963, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Birth Name

Donna Le Anne Keene

Height

5' 3" (1.60 m)

Mini Biography

Donna Williams was born in Australia in 1963 and grew up in the inner city. As well as being an artist, sculptor, composer and screenwriter, she is also an internationally best-selling author with 9 published books including a four book autobiographical collection, four text books and a book of poetry and prose. She is a renowned international public speaker who has spoken before sell-out audiences worldwide. A qualified teacher, Donna worked as an autism consultant for 8 years working with hundreds of people on the autistic spectrum.

The first of her four autobiographical works, Nobody Nowhere, spent a remarkable 15 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, sold over half a million copies worldwide and was published in over 20 languages. Its sequel, Somebody Somewhere (the second of four books in her autobiographical series) also became an international number one bestseller. Two more in this series followed, Like Colour To The Blind and Everyday Heaven, all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Her life story is under option by Hollywood producer, Beverly Nero.

Donna has been the subject of numerous documentaries, appeared as Person Of The Week with the late Peter Jennings on ABC, she also featured on The Connie Chung Show and is known for a number of interviews on Peter Gzowski's CBC 'Morningside' program.

After 14 years living in the UK she now lives back in Australia with her husband Chris Samuel.

IMDb Mini Biography By: DLK

Spouse

Chris Samuel

(9 December 2000 - present)

Trivia

Known for using gestural signing at her lectures, a system of 'home signs' she developed because of a receptive language processing disorder.

She and her husband Chris Samuel established the world's first international self employment service for people on the autistic spectrum.

Grew up with 'dysfunctional language' and came to understand sentences around the age of nine. Unlike those who 'think in pictures', Donna describes herself as a kinesthetic thinker for whom movement, pattern, theme and feel give definition to her world. Whilst fluent in typed language and able to get by in spoken language, she still uses representational objects and gestural signing to keep up with receptive language.

Wrote her first screenplay, Nobody Nowhere, in 2005. It was optioned by Hollywood producer, Beverly Nero. She went on to write numerous other screenplays, working on these with award-winning writer and script editor, Frederick Stahl and gained representation from Liz Hanley of Bicoastal Talent.

Married Chris Samuel in 2000 in the Victorian spa town of Great Malvern, Worcestershire, UK.

She was first tested for deafness at age 2, assessed as psychotic at age 2, labelled disturbed through childhood, again tested for deafness at age 9, then formally diagnosed with autism in her 20s. Her first screenplay, Nobody Nowhere (based on the book of the same name) covers the breakthrough realisation of her autism and how this contributed to dramatic changes in the understanding, teaching and treatment of people with autism worldwide.

Personal Quotes

I am always myself in the becoming of it.

Art is never a futile way to give. Art speaks and speaking moves and moving changes people and the world.

I always said I was not an expert, just a Social Philosopher. I didn't feel I had the answers but felt I was good at posing questions and questions make people seek answers in directions that experts would never have looked.

I follow no church, just my heart and empathy. In this sense I do not pray but hope and wish. I hope and wish for people to find how to be silly and to laugh and learn to be, each in their own right without waiting for permission or fixating on whether or not the other person has yet found the want or ability to join them. Because then you become the model of all it is to seize life. You can't control or force another person to do this but by enjoying your own joie de vivre you can inspire someone to wish they had it and ultimately that leads them to the greatest gift of all... the desire to chase life.

Eccentricity isn't contagious; what a shame

Where Are They Now

(September 2006) Melbourne, Australia.

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