Will Rogers, Mayor
Will Rogers, although born in Wisconsin, was raised primarily in and around Bloomington, Minnesota, a place he refers to as the "Burbank of Minnesota." Will’s family moved extensively when he was young, leading to sojourns in many spots including Burlington, Vermont, Pismo Beach, California, Chicago, Illinois, and Merritt Island, Florida. Will performed in his first commercial at the age of 15, and shortly thereafter began his "back-up career" as a freelance writer, specializing in investigative journalism. As a young adult, Will attended the Goodman School, a renowned college for actors in Chicago, and later Normandale College in Bloomington where he won national awards with the speech and forensics team. Will arrived in the Los Angeles area in 1979, where he continued dual roles as an actor and writer landing roles in TV and film while his by-line appeared in a variety of publications from LA Weekly to Germany's "Der Spiegel" magazine. In 1990, Will began writing for the local paper and was soon writing at least four feature columns per week. Will's work has appeared in virtually every newspaper in the "Times Community Newspapers" group, from Pasadena, to the South Bay, to Burbank, winning more than 20 first-place awards from the California Newspaper Publisher's Association, the Greater Los Angeles Press Club and others, including "Columnist of the Year." Much of Will's press work has been investigative in nature, but he's also written "observational humor" pieces about his wife and children, often touching on his DIY home remodeling projects. Voters selected Will to serve on Burbank City Council beginning May 1, 2015. |