Writer, actor, photographer, rock & roll vet, Lorraine Devon Wilke, seemed destined to be a hyphenate. Growing up in small-town Illinois, often without a TV, always with the influence of a father ...Show More
Writer, actor, photographer, rock & roll vet, Lorraine Devon Wilke, seemed destined to be a hyphenate. Growing up in small-town Illinois, often without a TV, always with the influence of a father who wrote books and loved musicals, and ever-surrounded by 10 siblings immersed in every kind of art possible, she launched early into the eclectic career she's maintained since.A theater major at the University of Illinois (where her first collaborative piece landed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. after winning the National College Theater Festival), and later a lead singer in a road band that led west, she experimented with an acting career in Los Angeles while studying and teaching with veteran acting coach, Robert F. Lyons. Stage plays and small film and TV roles followed, but she was ultimately led back to music, where she spent most of the vivid '80s singing and songwriting with her band, Devon, an original New Wave/Soul project that exploded onto the LA rock scene in tandem with MTV.During that time she worked with top producers and songwriters (including Brian Cadd, Craig Krampf, Bob DeStocki and jazz/blues notable Bob Shad), and later became part of an original rock project with Rod Stewart vets, Kevin Savigar and Jim Cregan. But even while immersed in big hair and rock clubs, she found a love for telling stories in screenplay form.When she and filmmaker, Patricia Royce, came up with a clever screenplay based on their tumultuous lives as single women trying to find "someone who'll mute the TV when we're talking to them," the result was To Cross the Rubicon (1991), a $1.7M feature directed by Barry Caillier and produced by the Lensman Company (Seattle, WA). A festival favorite, the indie film starred acclaimed singer/songwriter, JD Souther and the emerging Billy Burke, and also featured Jeffrey Dean Morgan and, one of her favorite performers, David Crosby. Co-starring as a prodigal rock singer, Devon Wilke also co-wrote and recorded several of the songs on the soundtrack, one of which, "I Surrender," she performs onscreen.The 90s was also about marriage and family, but she got back onstage during that era as well, most notably in the long-running Los Angeles musical "Is It Just Me, Or Is It Hot In Here?", produced and directed by the renowned Michael Arabian, and "Country Rules!", a country musical written and produced by her husband, Pete Wilke, and directed by Broadway veteran, Kay Cole.By the mid-2000s, Devon Wilke was once again back to rock & roll with Road To Blue, a top-notch blues/rock band that culminated in the recording of her first full-length CD, Somewhere On the Way, a well-reviewed collection of roots/rock originals written, arranged, and produced by Devon Wilke and Rick M. Hirsch.Continuing her singing, songwriting, and screenwriting (her screenplay The Theory of Almost Everything was chosen as a Finalist in the 2012 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest), she's also built a fine art photography business, has two award-winning novels, AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH and HYSTERICAL LOVE, in the literary marketplace and is working on a third, and for the last several years has been a regular contributor to a wide variety of newspapers and journalistic websites, most notably The Huffington Post and her own blog, Rock+Paper+Music.Devon Wilke, with one son, Dillon and one stepdaughter, Jennie, is married to Los Angeles entertainment/business attorney and writer/producer, Pete Wilke. Hide
