D. LEE INOSANTO (also known as Diana Lee Inosanto) was the firstborn child of martial arts legend, Dan Inosanto, and was named after her Honorary Uncle, the late Bruce Lee.
The writer-director-producer and co-star of "THE SENSEI" grew up surrounded by a Who's Who of the martial world. By contrast, growing up in Torrance, California, D. Lee’s love of performing arts would be nurtured by her Aunt Lilia (Inosanto) a drama teacher and actress.   In later years, D. Lee would join the Asian American theater company, Lodestone Theater Ensemble continuing to evolve as an actress.

Reaching adulthood, Ms. Inosanto struggled as a young, single mom with an Autistic son. Eventually she met her husband Ron Balicki – a former Deputy Sheriff turned Martial Arts Professional and stuntman.   Together, they would form a unique bond, teaching martial arts together and forming a video company.

As a struggling actress trying to pay the bills, Ms. Inosanto worked as a stunt-actress on Film and TV shows like FACE OFF and BUFFY the VAMPIRE SLAYER doubling for actresses, Margaret Cho and Sarah Michelle Gellar.  But eventually she tired of this kind of work, and taking her inspiration from Sylvester Stallone with ROCKY and Edward Burns with BROTHER'S MCMULLEN, seized control as the creator of her own film project.

Since being the mother of a severely autistic child made film school less than practical, Ms. Inosanto made the most of her stuntwoman situations to learn directly on set about the “directing process” by watching and absorbing the techniques, strategies, and philosophies exhibited by A-list directors, like Ang Lee, John Woo, Barry Sonnenfeld, Chris Columbus and Clint Eastwood and others she was privileged to just hang around and be there.  Any good martial artist knows that the best way to learn is to make the most out of opportunities to absorb from the great masters.

In addition, D. Lee Inosanto associate produced and co-starred in the independent feature film THE PRODIGY which received "4 ½ stars" out of   "5" from FILM THREAT magazine –due for US release in 2007.  She is a proud member of  WOMEN IN FILM and FILM INDEPENDENT—two organizations that aided and mentored her skills as a filmmaker and supported her process for creating "THE SENSEI."