David Henry Sterry

Sterry's parents were immigrants from Newcastle, England.^{[citation needed]} He grew up in New Jersey; Birmingham, Alabama; Virginia, Minnesota; and Dallas, Texas.^{[citation needed]} He attended boarding school at Darrow School in New Lebanon, NY, went to Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood for one year, where he also was employed as sex worker.^{[citation needed]} This became the subject of his first memoir, Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent. He then transferred to Reed College, where he studied existentialism and poetry, and graduated in 1978.^{[citation needed]} At 21, was offered a professional soccer contract.^{[citation needed]}

He started in show business as a stand-up comedian and improviser in the San Francisco during the early 1980s.^{[citation needed]} He also began to act in small productions.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, he moved to New York, where he appeared in commercials for McDonald's, AT&T, and Levi's, eventually becoming the spokesman for Publisher's Clearing House.^{[citation needed]} He also performed in many Off-Off Broadway plays.^{[citation needed]} In 1985 he was hired to be the master of ceremonies at Chippendales.^{[citation needed]} Nick de Noia, the creator of the show, was assassinated while Sterry was working for him.^{[citation needed]} This would become the subject of his second memoir, Master of Ceremonies: A True Story of Love, Murder, Roller Skates & Chippendales.^[1] He had a role in the film Memoirs of an Invisible Man. He appeared in a pilot for Eddie Murphy's production company. It starred Margaret Cho, and was not picked up by ABC.^{[citation needed]} This led to^{[citation needed]} a string of guest starring roles in black sitcoms like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sister Sister and Roc. He became a regular on the HBO/CTW show Encyclopedia, where he played characters ranging from George Washington to Napoleon Bonaparte to Leif Erikson.

He began writing books in 2001, with the publication of Satchel Sez: The World, Wit & Wisdom of Leroy Sawtchel Paige (Random House). His next book, the 2002 memoir, Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent,^[2] details his experiences as a teenage hustler in 1970s Hollywood.

Sterry was invited by the United States Department of Justice, in Washington DC, to attend a "Survivors Conference", where he led a writing workshop with young women who had been exploited in the sex industry.^[3]

He performs in a show titled Sex Worker Literati, which consists of people from the sex industry reading and performing original works.^[4] Sterry is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post^[5] and NPR^[6][7]

With the publication of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published (Workman, 2010), he co-founded the company The Book Doctors, and developed a show called Pitchapalooza, where writers get one minute to pitch their books ideas to a panel of publishing experts.^[8][9]