Hester Wilkinson is a New York-based actor whose work spans film, television, theatre, and national commercials. Her path to acting has been anything but ordinary. Raised by a single mother in rural Maine, Hester grew up fast. Her first job was picking peas for a dollar a bushel at age ten; by fifteen, she was supporting herself while working the midnight shift at Howard Johnson's.

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A lifelong adventurer, she once helped navigate her Outward Bound group to safety after they were lost for three days in the Adirondacks. Hester later spent nearly two decades studying and teaching martial arts, meditation, and hand-to-hand combat. She led wilderness expeditions for at-risk teenagers, slept in snow caves and under canoes along remote Maine rivers, helped grow a youth nonprofit from a $50,000 annual budget to $2.5 million - and even once choked out a Navy SEAL. She's all about peace, but can kick ass when necessary; she has been a devoted volunteer for decades serving refugees, the impoverished, and vulnerable populations. 

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​Her professional life eventually took another turn when she built a successful, award-winning career as a biotech executive. But acting, which had been part of her life since she was very young, remained unfinished business. With a "go big or go home" attitude, Hester took a huge risk of investment and time by returning to formal training and completing her BFA nearly thirty years after first enrolling in college -- driving 5+ hours each way to class or staying at a Hare Krishna hostel near Penn Station to attend classes.

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On screen, Hester is at home as the prosecutor you don't want across the aisle, the formidable wife holding the power, the physician you want when things go sideways, or the woman keeping everyone alive after the world falls apart. A lifelong Gen Xer, Hester spent her teenage years sneaking off to CBGB's, saw The Empire Strikes Back twelve times in theaters, and still carries a little of that Maine wilderness kid wherever she goes. She is also a passionate coffee drinker, hot yoga practitioner, wife, mother of a teenaged daughter and a rescued stray dog, and a jazz enthusiast.