Theatre maven, Count Stovall, was born in East Los Angeles on the cutting edge of the radio generation. Raised in East Oakland, Count completed a year of college before joining the US Army for three years. He returned to Oakland, where he attended Merritt College and began his acting training. Count attended the University of California and afterward joined San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, where he went on to work in a variety of Bay Area theatres. Stovall turned professional in 1970, with the National tour of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, No Place to be Somebody, and the rest is history.