About Kevin E. West

Kevin E. West is both a Hollywood veteran television actor and a bad-ass Keynote speaker with over 65 plus credits including Guest Stars on Hawaii 5-0, Criminal Minds, Aquarius, Bones, Castle, Touch, CSI: Miami, Justified, Leverage, Lost, 24, Desperate Housewives, NCIS, Alias, CSI, Judging Amy, all the way back to Matlock and dozens more found on IMDB. In the Summer of ’18 Kevin wrapped shooting on The UnHealer, starring Lance Henriksen and Natasha Henstridge. Kevin has been a public speaker since 1991, with more than 1500 appearances and began his career as a Stand-up Comic and Improv artist.

Kevin, is also a bad-ass walking paradox — being equal parts creative Pisces and redneck third-baseman tough. Sure, Kevin has spent three decades working in Hollywood but his humble beginnings looked far more like Tom Sawyer at 12 starring in the movie, Deliverance. From the rural woods outside of Nashville (’69) to shooting Emmy-Award Winning television shows, with multiple accents, Kevin speaks unabashedly from his core about the importance of clear communication, proper preparation and the core of your skills.

In November of 2019, Kevin’s third book was published, by TitleTown publishing. Politics…in a Word is a companion book in the Gift Book series entitled Kevin’s Dictionary. The original publication, Kevin’s second book, is Life…in a Word which was published in the fall of 2018. Life…in a Word is a creative, unique, poignant and endearing perspective at how we define a word based on a vignette of life. Both of these publications follow Kevin’s initial author effort, 7 Deadly Sins: The Actor Overcomes, published in June of 2016 and is an expert educational culmination of Kevin’s 30+ years of expertise in the business of show business, for actors.

When Kevin speaks it is often raw, deeply personal, some colorful language and yet directed precisely at each individual in the room. Kevin has consulted well over a 1000 people in his life from 20+ countries on the complexities of “how to be” pro-actively successful in any industry. In 1991, out of a dream and a pure grass roots mentality, Kevin founded and built the award-winning actor’s business organization, The Actors’ Network.

Kevin is commonly recognized as the top expert opinion leader industry-wide on the “business of show business” and The Actors’ Network still remains the most endorsed actor’s business organization in the U.S., winning consecutive BackStage West “Reader’s Choice” awards (06/07). A few of its alumni include Emmy Nominee Masi Oka (Heroes), Chelsey Crisp (Off The Boat), Chris Gorham (Covert Affairs-Ugly Betty) and Maggie Grace (Taken trilogy). Kevin has spoken at the ShowBiz Expo, WGA, SAG LifeRaft Foundation, UCLA, as well as talent conventions across the U.S. and in the spring of ’15 in Stockholm at the Swedish Film Institute for the inaugural event, A Date with Hollywood.

Additionally, Kevin is the creator of the video interview series, ActorBizGuru, voted #1 online educational resource by BackStage West, featuring, 49 top industry professionals. He also Co-Authored the 2-hour audio CD The Actor’s Guide to GETTING THE JOB, with former top commercial instructor, Carolyne Barry. To top it all off, in honor of his fallen friend Kerry Daveline from Melanoma, Kevin’s philanthropic soul, created the Hack n’ Smack Celebrity Golf Classic in the spring of ’04 which ran for 10 years and was voted one of the top 10 celebrity golf events in SoCal by Southland Golf magazine. From ’04-’13 the celebrity participation included: Joe Pesci, Joe Mantegna, Ron Perlman and Michael Chiklis.

All told Kevin has produced, from scratch, more than 40 live events of all kinds as well continues to consult for many others. Kevin is a former collegiate golfer (still a 6 hdcp.), has run 4 LA Marathons, played in 6 Men’s Senior Baseball World Series, is a deadly serious Texas Hold-em player and lives his life by “The 4-Agreements”.