Biography: Emmy award-winning actor, writer and producer introduces his new book 'Chasing America' ! Dennis Watlington’s Chasing America is a rollercoaster ride through promise and poverty, affirmative action and addiction – a powerful story that captures a life and an era that is seminally American. Born in Harlem in 1952, Dennis Watlington has been walking a tightrope his entire life. At the age of 14, after bouncing in and out of various schools, Dennis got addicted to heroin.