Doreen Forest was born in rural Tennessee just outside of Memphis. Her parents Ruth and Idell Sparks were engaged in the growing field of direct wallpaper marketing. Realising that shack dwellers don't use wallpaper, young Doreen left at the age of 14. Truly crushed that she would not become the Wallpaper Princess of Central Tennessee, she joined the Barney Cloister Colossal Carnival and Sideshow Extravaganza. She traveled on with them to St. Paul where she focused her energies on the new ice sculpture act. Making her living dodging clown-thrown twigs and soap fireballs soaked with gasoline while sculpting Renaissance icons was hard work, but it paid off. The show was well received and all in the world was right until that fateful day. Barney had unexpectedly died under mysterious circumstances involving bailing wire, a car battery and 3 monks. The carnival was then willed to Klay Olms, a California attorney and Barney's half brother. He moved it to Pasadena and Doreen along with it. In California her ice act never gained the fire it had in Minnesota. With the heat and rising price of gasoline, she found her act unperformable and ill-received. Still determined she moved on to Hollywood to pursue her own star. Doreen gained minor notoriety in small roles such as "girl with lollipop" on Hotel and "victim #3" on Emergency. It was her role as a young junkie prostitute on CHIPS that caught the eye of Heinz Klaumelschmott and the audition that would change her life. He cast her in his period piece Kung Fu Kung Fu Samurai. "I knew at once I must have her. For my film that is." Klaumelschmott offered her a screen test. "Her raw presence and flexibilty sealed it for her. She had the part after the first 2 minutes." This film proved to be life changing for Doreen. She met her future husband Huck Forrest. The two would appear together in a string of popular kung fu movies. Exchanging vows on the set of The Dragon Does Wake and continuing until the total breakdown on the set of Our Blood Will Not Forgive. Fed up with Huck's secret life she left after a brief cameo in the film. Heartbroken, Doreen poured herself into her first passion, television. Now she stars in her independantly produced screen gem Nathan's Creek. Doreen Forest has appeared in episodes 5 and 8. back to the cast page