Terri Hardin was born in Pasadena California, to Robert R. Hardin, and Lois Laverne Harvey. From the time she was born , Terri has lead an interesting life. You see, Terri is an interracial child. This means mixed. This means half black (her dad is black) and Half White ( mom, of course, who else is left?) Terri was born in 1957. Her parents fell in love in 1955-56, the exact same time that blacks were fighting to sit anywhere on the bus.

I would say, that her parents were pioneers. How two people could look at each other and fall hopelessly in love, at a time when prejudice reigned supreme, is nothing more then remarkable and amazing.

Robert and Lois , Terri’s parents, had to elope. Lois’s parents would have nothing to do with the couple, and forbad Lois to see that boy again. Robert’s parent’s (his dad, as he lost his mom earlier in life) was a bit more open minded, and bid Robert to follow his heart.

So in the dark of night, off the couple went, to be married, in the only place that would perform such a marriage, Mexico.

One year later, Terri was born. Her life was full of adventure from the very start. Being light skinned, folks treated her in a variety of ways. Some good , some bad. Her father kept her spirits high by creating stories to help her remain strong and focused. Her mom, a very talented water color artist, taught Terri, that through art , the world can be wonderful. Both parents taught her that there was no such word as can’t. She could do anything.

Three years after Terri was born, a new little bundle of joy arrived. Her sister Kathy, who looks like Halle Barry. Coco skin and a beautiful face, and smart as a whip, Kathy now resides in Chicago married to a Lawyer.

Terri went to school, got into tons of trouble, was shoved in many a locker. A geek if you would, completely obsessed with art and Drama. She landed her first role in the Christmas pageant singing "Santa Clause is Coming to Town. She got it because she was the only one at age six who could project her singing voice to the back of the auditorium. After that she was bitten by the acting bug. Her next role was the Cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz in the sixth grade. She acted for most of her life, and after seeing Sherry Lewis perform puppets, created a Lamb chop and puppets became a part of her life.

Art was cool but acting and performing was really what Terri loved to do. But when she would audition Hollywood felt she looked too weird to be used. When it came time for college, Terri was introduced to puppets and there she found a way to act and not worry about her looks. Terri took two years and then went out in the work force.

She landed her first job for the film DUNE in which she build the stillsuits and stunt doubled for Shawn Young. Then GHOSTBUSTERS where she played the temple dog, and was also on team Marshmellow man and the librarian.

Check out her resume for a complete list. Puppets became a main part of Terri’s life. She first started out, by auditioning for a show called B. B. BEAGLE a show that was a Hanna Barbera version of The Muppet show.

Then she went to a state wide audition for Sid and Marty Krofft and landed a workshop out of that. Then went on to be on a show called Oral Roberts Celebration. Yes, the television evangelist. Wow!

At some point, around the time Disney was gearing up for Epcot, Lois, Terri’s mom worked at Disney Imagineering and recommend they see Terri and her great works as an artist. Disney refused.

In 1987 after Terri had been building and Designing and Performing for films and TV Disney contacted her to come and be interviewed. How did this happen? Well, Terri was working in a very small shop for a friend, creating walk around characters for Universal. You know, woody woodpecker , Charlie tuna, Smokey the bear etc. A friend saw her when visiting one day, and he said he could get her an interview at Imagineering. The man was a set painter.

Well he did it and on a very very rainy day, Terri was asked to come and be looked over. Bring the portfolio, please. Once they saw her and if you have you know her hair is a story in itself, and then the portfolio, they were totally blown away. But it would take an additional eight interview before Terri became part of the Imagineering team.

Finally when she was brought in, she was asked to begin work on the big Thunder Mountain ride attraction for Disneyland Paris. From there she went on to create the DragonsLair for the same park, Disneyland Paris. At this point, Terri discovered that the dragon she was working so hard to create a cave for was not to be animated. She was shocked. She went to her supervisor and told of her despair. The supervisor told her she would have to take it up with Tony Baxter, And ,,, that she would only have 15 minutes to state her case. If you know Terri, this is nooo easy task.

She agreed, and soon the day came. In walked Tony Baxter, with a great group of folks traveling behind him.. He sat down in front of Terri and said " Okay kid, What’cha got?"

Terri began to rattle off her upset at the Dragon being stagnant as fast as she could. So fast that Tony stopped her. Tony asked Terri why she was talking so fast as he could barely understand her. She explained the 15 min. rule. Tony agreed to give her a bit more time if she would slow down her explanation.

Terri spoke of how the Dragon had to be animated as this was a Disney park, not a Magic Mountain or some other fly by night park. But a Disney park. We had a reputation to up hold.

Tony enjoyed the Muppet-like passionate little individual and agreed to let Terri design all of Dragons Lair, right down to the animation. She was delighted.

After that , she went on to do Pan Galactic pizza for Tokyo. Splash mountain for Tokyo. And quite a bit of others.

Then Terri went for her dream. A spot on the Disney sculpting team. When she was asked to audition with a Maquette (small sculpture) of breir fox. After that , she was asked to sculpt breir fox’s head full size. That sculpture was then evaluated by the Disney Sculpture big wigs. And finally, after a lot of sweat and tears, she got in. When place in her cubical, she realized it was the exact same place that her hero Blane Gibson had sculpted years ago. For the first few days, Terri did not have an assignment, so she spent the day leafing through all of Blaine’s documentation he had left for the company. If you think this was heaven, you are sooo right.

It was here that Terri created the splash mtn Rabbit that sits on the splash mtn boat (also a Terri sculpt) and a few figures in the new show. She is also a pumpkin carver, so she was asked by Disney to create on of those as well.

Then asked to do Muppet Vision 3D she met Jim Henson, who invited her to write with him. He died before any of the works could come to TV.

Terri rediscovered the acting bug when in Country Bears she was asked to be in the bar scene in the film. Seemed Hollywood has changed, as far as how they felt she looked was concerned. She decided to get back into acting. She is now represented by Gold-Liedke for commercials and Theatrical, and is managed by Horatio Blackwood Entertainment. She has done stand – up comedy at the Improv and is writing a one woman show.