I was born in the small city of Brantford Ontario but grew up in the much larger and busier city of Hamilton Ontario Canada. Most of my family lived in Brantford and still til this day I have a special place in my heart for the home of Alexander Graham Bell,Wayne Gretzky, my two fave places Maria's Pizza and Stans Fries Wagons.At five years old I was in a Christmas play we put on in kindergarten. I cannot remember if i brought Gold frankinsence or Myrr but I enjoyed it when we were finished..
           I was a rather quiet child, outgoing with my family but content off by myself for hours with my Star Wars figures.....which I would try to save for my children later.We didn't have a lot of money but I never went without. My parents Richard (Dick) and Carole who went by the name of Kinney because a younger relative couldn't pronounce her name when she was young  always put me first. Truthfully I was a bit spoiled but never acted as such. I got along really well with other children, always shared also apparently was perfectly behaved when out at a restaurant or any other outing with my parents.
            I was a huge Elvis fan but for acting without a doubt it was James Dean. Even at that young age I realized he embodied something so few before or after him did. I would stay up on weekends watching old movies, James Cagney, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby. Whatever was on I'd watch, learn, and study the greats movie making techniques.
            By the time Three's Company took charge of the television, I was in awe. Who was this John Ritter guy? He was Lucille Ball, Carole Burnett and The Three Stooges all wrapped into this new innovative talent. Soon along came Family Ties and I was hooked. I needed to write, to act and damnit I sure as hell needed to direct. It enveloped me thoroughly . Frustration began to set in. Every night I could, I'd find myself staying up until 6am writing scripts with my best friend Dana at his apartment the floor above mine, loaded up on coffee, a vice I must admit I carry to this very day. Truthfully by no stretch of the mind we were actually pretty good at creating. I seemed to have a knack but it was hard writing more than 80-140 pages without being enamoured by some new idea. My thoughts would drift. I couldn't write quickly enough. Til this day I still find this a problem.  My mind just runs way too fast for just one idea. I see the whole film and lines in billions of words and pictures in a second, have the ending in one minute but to type and get to the target, the finished product feels draining and tedious to me. A real pain in the ass I have to tell you!                                           When I wasn't  writing, I would study the technique.....relentlessly acting alone in my room, attempting to master the Method as did the greats Brando and Dean. From an early age on I was consumed by the dream to study under the great Stella Adler although of course this would never be the case.In those days everyone who wanted to be taken seriously in the craft was taught by the prestigious Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio in New York. Although he is no longer with us his teaching legacy still lives on through The Actors Studio. If you were going to be somebody, a well trained and well rounded performer his class was a must. Anyone can still audition today, whether or not you are accepted is another story. When you receive news that you have made it into the class, my guess is the only other feeling that comes close as an  actor would be winning an Oscar and I am not sure which is actually better. Obviously I was too young at the time to qualify and too young to be jetting off to New York to study under the greats so I had to be studious in teaching myself. Let me tell you it wasn't an easy task. I would dress in something different, take on a character and talk and go over my emotions in the bathroom mirror. Picture your father walking in while you are talking to yourself in the mirror dressed as some crazy character you have created, a little embarrassing for me and likely really strange to him as I recall him walking away shaking his head saying "Kinney, Brett's talking to himself in the mirror again". My mother would laugh saying " leave him alone he's acting which in turn my dad would laugh because he knew. I think he just wanted to embarrass me.                             No longer shy, I had no problem separating myself amongst the others in my middle school drama class, finding it way too easy to take them on a ride wherever I wished my characters to take them. Usually this ended up in such laughter, they would laugh so hard there would be tears in their eyes, even the teacher who by this time was so without control of her body functions that she couldn't even cut the skit. Simply she couldn't. It's difficult to put words together and say on to the next classmate when you are laughing hysterically. I knew this so i would just keep going until it physically hurt the audience. If the teacher couldn't stop me then i had that much more time to act and quite frankly speaking it wasn't about the attention i received or people telling me wow that was amazing. I just wanted people to have fun and laugh. If i could do it they could do it. I am not sure if it inspired anyone but it sure was a lot of fun. I loved it A++++, was the best grade I ever received. Don't get me wrong. I did have other interests.                                                              I didn't like the subjects offered in school so I'd read up on topics such as Law, Archaeology, Poetry, anything mysterious such as Ghosts, UFO's, Big Foot and even found some interest in Psychology. There are many other topics I tried to learn but these were the foremost.                                                                        Back to movies. There weren't many kids whose favorite movies were Gone With The Wind, The Great Escape and the TV series Roots.
               Weekends were usually spent at the family gathering place of my Grandparents. everyone says their Grandmother is the best cook but mine truly was. I am still baffled as to how we didn't all end up being 300 pounds. My Grandparents are truly missed as they were amazing role models and people. My Grandfather John worked at Massey Ferguson, being quite handy he even built a home for his family early on. My Grandmother Ann was in Real Estate. When not there on weekends in the winter, my father and I would go ice skating at the rink, in the summer it was the beach. my father grew up on the Beach Strip in Hamilton and my mother loved the water, so naturally the beach is where i am most at home leaving all worries behind, grounding myself, finding solace, being one with nature and God.
                 I was pretty much talented at all sports except tennis. How does anyone ever keep the ball in the court? I think the reason sports came natural to me was because I had heart and the urge to push myself farther than I felt my body would be able to handle.
                 At thirteen my school councillor and teacher took me into the principals office to call my parents. Was I in trouble? I couldn't remember doing anything that warranted a call home to my parents except being the class clown from time to time. Mrs. Schneider which was her name had hopes that my parents would agree to me starting highschool at the School Of The Performing Arts instead of the school across the way. "Wow, I could get training to further myself my dreams, my need to round my acting ability while learning new disciplines I had not venture into before".It was the unknown, which wasn't a scary idea but a welcome change. Three seconds into the call before I could even imagine a plane ticket to the Oscars it was evident my father wouldn't go for it. There was the cost, the transportation also the fact my father was a business man based out of Toronto. In no way could he pull it off. I wasn't disappointed because somehow deep down I knew, related and understood his stance.
                By 14 I was writing my first real true script "Never Say Good-bye" based on four main characters intertwined as friends in this emotional love story. The main teenage lead character was to end up dying in a freak drowning accident while the group of friends were off on a camping excursion. The torment and anguish that her counter part had to deal with and overcome added truth to what was on the written page. How would one deal with that, being seconds away from saving the life of your soulmate only to come up short? By true script I mean this was my script, something I'd invested in emotionally 100%, my love on that paper, which I believed could definately hit the silver screen.
               One day in English class at the highschool "across the way", in English class I was to find myself taken aside again by a teacher. She advised me that it may be in my best interests to write books. This came off strange. I was only 14 and she had no Idea about my background so I must have done something to stand out. She had no idea I wrote scripts but I guess something in my Essay and story writing lead her to hand me the contact information I would need to further my writing and make money doing it. I was flabbergasted . Here I was only 14, now being acknowledged for my wring but wait for it here's where I make myself laugh and looking back now, slightly cry...hahaha. Guess what? Books weren't where it was at for me...."blew that one myself..hahaha". So I graciously took the number, the info, thanked her but never pursued it....I should have went to The School Of The Performing Arts because quite obviously I wasn't bright enough to go to a normal highschool....Damn can't imagine what would have happened at The Arts School if I look at it in retrospect now..hahaha! Now where would I go or where would I end up?