‏Lunden De'Leon‏

Some women are go-getters. Some women are business-minded. Some women use their struggles as building blocks for their success. Lunden De'Leon are all of these things.

According to dictionary.com an entrepreneur is a person "who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk." In a perfect world, a smiling picture of the stunning De'Leon would accompany this impressively apt definition.

Barbados born, South Carolina-bred, De'Leon had her fair share of ups and downs before she came to be known as the powerhouse she is now. After a brief stint as a Burger King employee as a teenager, De'Leon, who was bitten by the entertainment bug after seeing her gospel-singer father perform, decided to pursue her dreams and found herself in Hollywood, homeless and with only $200 to her name.

Through a roommate, who would offset things in De'Leon's life in ways she could never imagine, things began looking up. After attending a model calling, De'Leon, whose motivation was solely to overcome her "hungry and penniless" state at the time, she not only booked the audition, but scored a one-year modeling contract the same day.

Not long thereafter, De'Leon made her small screen debut on the hit series Vital Signs, - filmed in Los Angeles, but broadcast in Germany - in which she starred as a young woman trying to make it in the United States, a storyline not too far off from the rising star's own life. De'Leon continued to make a name for herself with a host of subsequent movie and television appearances, including the NBC sitcom, Just Shoot Me!

De'Leon's biggest break, however, came in 2003 when she launched her very own record label, Dirrty Records. Upon the label's success in its home of Los Angeles, a second branch was set up in South Carolina, where the entrepreneur still calls home.

With an eclectic roster of artists signed to the label, including Seattle-based punk band The Slumps and the British indie rock quartet, The Fades, whose music has already been featured on the NBC hits "Life" and "Friday Night Lights," De'Leon proved that she was an innovative force to be reckoned with.

And people took notice.

What followed was a mention in New York-based hip hop magazine The Ave, vaunting De'Leon as "one of the most significant women in entertainment" and in 2004, an induction into the Caribbean Hall of Fame, alongside reggae legend Bob Marley and acting great Sidney Poitier.

Since then, De'Leon, who also received her own day (February 7) in Los Angeles as proclaimed by former mayor James K. Hahn, has made sure not to rest on her laurels.

Recently, De'Leon started her own movie production company, Palmetto Film Studios in Marion, South Carolina, which distributes between five and seven films a year. In addition to that, De'Leon started The Lunden De'Leon Foundation, where she encourages young children to follow their dreams, in just the determined way she did.