At age 18, she went to work for her father in his paper export Business, DuBarry International, and took acting lessons at night with Milton Katselas and Charles E. Conrad. She landed commercials for Michelob Beer, Chevrolet Camaro and worked as an extra in the kid's shows, Magic Mongo, Wonder Woman and she made an appearance on The Gong Show as beauty contestant, "Ms. Hold the Mayo". She competed in several real beauty contests including Ms. Malibu where she won "Most Photogenic". She was hired to co-star in a CBS Movie of the Week, Deadman's Curve. She landed a regular role on the last season of the NBC World War II television series, Black Sheep Squadron, and guest-starred on popular television shows, including Charlie's Angels. Trapper John, M.D. and Match Game '78. Director Hal Ashby cast her in a featured role in the 1979 film Being There.
Having previously acted together in the 1980 television movie Top of the Hill, DuBarry and Gary Lockwood formed a production company, Xebec Productions, in 1982, and she began writing and fundraising for film development and production, while she continued to act. In 1985, she appeared in the cult film Monster in the Closet. In 1986, she appeared in the film Lethal (aka KGB, the Secret War). In 1987, she and a partner produced Play the Piano Overnight. DuBarry enthusiastically presented what was, at the time, a new and unorthodox marketing vehicle to the product owner – the infomercial. Play the Piano Overnight was immensely successful, hundreds of thousands of videos were sold, and soon after Thane International was born.
Congresswoman Mary Bono presented DuBarry with the Desert Diva Award at the Palm Springs Women in Film and Television Broken Glass Awards. DuBarry received the "Woman of Distinction in the Arts" from the American League of Pen Women for her work in the arts and she and Hay received a joint Ernst and Young "Entrepreneur of the Year Award" in 1998. DuBarry has a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.
In 2005, DuBarry founded Kaswit, Inc., a direct response marketing company. Two of Kaswit's top direct response projects are the successful, US and internationally distributed infomercials: "Pilates Power Gym", and "Secrets to Training the Perfect Dog" with Don Sullivan, "The DogFather". Through her production company founded in 2006, Blue Moxie Entertainment, DuBarry produced the feature film, Shoot the Hero, which had its World Premiere at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
She is involved with the local desert community and became President of Palm Springs Women in Film & Television, a non-profit organization whose goal is to empower women in the film and television industry to help advance their careers through networking and mentoring programs. PSWIFT initiatives launched under her leadership have been the pswift.com site and the psfilmoffice.com site, a virtual film office for the Palm Springs area designed to help bring more film and television production to the Coachella Valley. She fought to get the officially sanctioned "Oscar Night America" gala celebrating the Academy Awards to the Coachella Valley for 2008 and 2009. [1] [2] She serves as a trustee for Olive Crest homes for abused children. As Development Chair, she developed strategies for raising millions of dollars to build four residential homes, each housing six children, one of which is the DuBarry-Hay Family home.
She met her Future husband Bill Hay through mutual friend Dick Robertson, then President of Warner Bros. Television Distribution. The couple formed and produced and distributed, Beat the Recession and a slew of other infomercials. DuBarry Hay’s entrepreneurial streak also extends to the booming yoga industry. Not only is she a certified Bikram yoga instructor and practitioner; prior to relocating to La Quinta in 1990, she founded Malibu Yoga in Malibu, California.
