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'Charlotte Laws' (born May 11, 1960) is an American author, local Los Angeles politician, community activist, and animal rights advocate.^[1] As a former actress, some of her credits can be found under her Screen Actors Guild name 'Missy Laws'. ^[2]
Laws is currently serving her second term on the Greater Valley Glen Council ^[3] in Valley Glen, California. She is the first politician^[4] to run on the platform that she represents all beings in her district, not just the humans whom she maintains are the elite. Davidow, Ben."Caged Reality," The Paly Voice, April 5, 2005. She publicly promotes moving from a democracy to what she calls an ''omniocracy'', a government with representation for all living beings. Laws, Charlotte."From Democracy to Omniocracy", Opinion Editorials, March 15, 2005.
In May 2006, Laws was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to serve on the city’s 912 Commission. ^[5] In 1999, the Los Angeles City Charter mandated that a commission would be formed seven years later to review the progress, successes and failures of the city’s Neighborhood Council system.
She is the founder and president of two organizations: the Directors of Animal Welfare (DAW) Fleck, Denise. "Directors of Animal Welfare: Helping Los Angeles Communities and the Animals that Inhabit them" and the League for Earth and Animal Protection (LEAP) ^[6]. She also sits on the board of the Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA), a scholarly center created to advance the debate about animal liberation. ^[7]
Laws was the recipient of the 2006 Los Angeles Animal Humanitarian Award.

Contents

Education

Acting and writing career

Personal life

Works

See also

Notes

External Links

Further reading

Education

After completing high school at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, Laws attended the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and completed bachelor’s degrees in Theatre (1985) and Philosophy (1996) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She earned two master’s degrees from the University of Southern California (USC) in Professional Writing (1986) and in Social Ethics (1997), as well as a Ph.D. in Social Ethics (2000). In 2003, she completed post-doctoral coursework at Oxford University, England.

Acting and writing career

Laws studied acting at the Academy Theatre of Atlanta and the Estelle Harman Actors Workshop in Los Angeles. She worked as a model and actress in movies and television until her late 20's.
In 1988, Laws authored a popular book called '''Meet the Stars''', which details how the average person can succeed in the entertainment industry. ^[8] She promoted the book on ''Larry King Live'', ''Oprah Winfrey'', ''The Late Show'' and over a hundred radio and television shows throughout America and Canada.
From 1997-2000, Laws wrote for the British magazine ''Mad Dogs and Englishmen'' and since then has become a syndicated columnist. Her articles on current events, philosophy and social issues have been published in the "Los Angeles Daily News," "E the Environmental Magazine," "Opinion Editorials," "LA Times" and "Newsweek." ^[9]

Personal life

Laws was adopted at birth and tracked down her birthparents in her late twenties. She is known for saying, “You can never have too many parents.”^[10]
Prior to acting and writing, Laws experimented with a number of jobs. She was a cab driver, private investigator, backup singer for an Elvis imitator, nurse, fashion designer, aerobics instructor and antiques shop owner. Laws has also been a licensed Realtor since 1987. ^[11]
She married English barrister and California attorney Charles Parselle in the 1990’s and has a daughter named Kayla, who is an actress.

Works

★ Laws, Missy. ''Meet the Stars''. Ross Books, 1988, ISBN 0-89496-002-4.

★ Laws, Charlotte. "Jains, the ALF, and the ELF: Antogonists or Allies?" ''Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of Mother Earth'', edited by Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella. AK Press, 2006. ISBN 1-904859-56-9.

★ Laws, Charlotte. ''ARMed for Ideological Warfare''. (forthcoming)

See also

★ Party for the Animals

★ Marianne Thieme

Notes

1. United Press International, "Animal Groups Zero in on pharma," July 26, 2006.
2. "Internet Movie Database"
3. http://www.ValleyGlen.net
4. Greater Valley Glen Council members are considered politicians in that they campaign for office, are elected, are part of the city government and make binding decisions regarding taxpayer funds that are entrusted to them. They also fit the official definition of a politician. However, some people would not call them politicians because their decisions are advisory with respect to policy-making, and they receive no compensation for their local political work.
5. "Laws Appointed to the 912 Commission", Studio City Sun, June 30, 2006, p. 5.
6. "League for Earth & Animal Protection"
7. "CALA Website"
8. "Amazon.com Website"
9. "Biola University Conference"
10. The Bachelorette Book, April 30, 1998.
11. http://www.CharlotteLaws.net

External Links

★ Charlotte Laws’ website

★ Interviews and Articles

★ Directors of Animal Welfare (DAW)

★ Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA)

★ 912 Commission / Neighborhood Council Review Commission

★ Greater Valley Glen Council

★ The Charlotte Laws Blog

★ DAWs on the Los Angeles Animal Services Website

★ Biography for Dr. Charlotte Laws

★ Audio of Dr. Charlotte Laws' speech "Engaging Politicians" at the 2005 Animal Rights Conference

★ Video of Interviews with Charlotte Laws

★ KFI 640 Radio interview with Charlotte Laws about Animal Rights. (John & Ken Show, December 4, 2005)

Further reading

★ My Adventure Presenting Animal Rights Philosophy to the FBI by Charlotte Laws

★ Are You the Terrorist Next Door?

★ Another Doomsday, Another Dollar by Charlotte Laws

★ Arm Wrestling with Darwin by Charlotte Laws

★ Much Ado About Mansionization by Charlotte Laws

★ To Picket Fences in LA by Charlotte Laws

★ Gentlemen Prefer Blogs by Charlotte Laws

★ Mayor Villaraigosa and the Truth about Cats and Dogs by Charlotte Laws

★ Los Angeles' Propoistion H: Housing Hocus-Pocus by Charlotte Laws

★ Going Undercover to Become Donald Trump's Apprentice by Charlotte Laws

★ Polls and the Power of Self-Manipulation by Charlotte Laws

★ Patriots and Parrots: Imprisoning Tongues in America by Charlotte Laws

★ Adventures in Fundraiserville by Charlotte Laws