Bio
http://picasaweb.google.com/hellohanala/TheseAreThings
Los Angeles-based author, actress, screenwriter, producer, artist, comedian, TV host, group fitness instructor and substance-abuse counselor, Hanala Stadner keeps herself busy.
She"s probably best known for her long-running, critically acclaimed, local, Los Angeles TV program: The Suzan Stadner Show.
As substance abuse expert who has actually been down the road of recovery herself, Stadner is called upon regularly to speak about addiction and recovery. She's enlightened and entertained hosts and audiences on CNN’s Show Biz Tonight, Dateline, CBS News, Extra, E! Entertainment Television, A&E's Biography and more.
Her trademark mix of candor and self-deprecating humor has made her a sought-out interview, especially during the onslaught of bad-girl meltdowns by Lindsay, Britney, Paris, Nicole and the like.
Hanala was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust. Hanala was named after one of her mother's sisters who died in a gas chamber. As Hanala says: "Always a peppy thought." Hanala changed her name to Suzan, and when she turned 21, moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. But, she had taken her family troubles with her in the form of eating disorders and addictions to drugs, alcohol and abusive men.
Thanks to a regime of 12-step programs, psychotherapy, and aerobics, she paved a personal pathway to sobriety and peak physical health, inevitably deciding to use her transformative journey to help others.
Hanala had developed an uncanny eye for detail and for the absurdities of dysfunctional family life. In her memoir, My Parents Went Through the Holocaust and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, she writes, “I have a special form of childhood Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I can’t hold Ma or Daddy’s attention. The Holocaust, dancing a polka in their heads, distracts them.”
Both hilarious and horrifying, Hanala’s account of her childhood and her struggle to come to terms with her early trauma and her parents has inspired countless other members of the “Second Generation,” the children andgrandchildren of Holocaust survivors (3rd Gen) . One admiring reader who shared her experience wrote, “Thanks for putting into words what so many people go through life thinking, unable to say aloud.”
After getting sober in 1982, Hanala studied psychology at UCLA, worked in a L.A. rehab, and became a member of The National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors. She also became a leading fitness instructor and created the most viewed local-access cable program in Southern California's history!
Hanala's media commentary on subjects like addiction, sex, fitness and family dysfunction can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5yKObIVulU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKAYF_7EnRQ&feature=related
ALSO, Got Resume? Yup: http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/hanala