- Name: Traci Wald Donat
- Date of birth: January 19th, 1963
- Age: 61
- Place of birth: Malvern, Melbourne, Australia
- Nationality: Australian/American
- Zodiac sign: Capricorn
- Parents: Helen Reddy (mother), Kenneth Claude Weate (father), Jeff Wald (step-father)
- Marital status: Married
- Spouse: Lucas Donat
- Height: 5 feet 5 inches (165cm)
- Occupation: TV director, film producer, and herbalist
- Instagram: @simpletonics
- Net worth: Estimated $300k
Traci Wald Donat is an American TV director and herbal specialist. She is also a celebrity child who came to the limelight because of her mother, Helen Reddy. Traci’s mother was a singer and actress whose most famous work as a singer is I am Woman, a single that made waves in its day.
Traci’s work as a director includes the 1989 movie titled A Nightmare On Drug Street. As with many celebrities, a lot of people are very interested to know more about Traci’s life and we present you with all the details with regard to the director’s life and career.
How old is Traci Wald Donat?
Traci Wald Donat was born Traci Weate on January 19, 1963. She is currently 61 years old after celebrating her birthday early in the year. She was born in Malvern, Melbourne, Australia but moved to the United States with her mother, early on in her life. She holds a dual nationality on account of her birth in Australia and a combination of having lived in the US for most of her life and marriage to a US citizen.
Traci was raised alongside a younger stepbrother named Jordan Sommers following her mother’s second marriage to Jeff Wald (a bit more on that later). Her stepbrother Jordan, is also a famous TV producer. With regards to her formal education, Traci’s relatively quiet and private lifestyle means that a large chunk of her early life details, like her pre-school, middle school, high school, and college education, is something the public and the media have no credible knowledge of.
Who is Traci Wald Donat’s birth father?
The identity of Traci’s birth mother has never really been in question. In fact, the primary reason the public even became interested in details of her life is because of her mother’s identity and social standing. It is a well-documented fact that Traci’s mom is the popular late singer and actress, Helen Reddy. She got custody of Traci and raised her with her second husband after her divorce from Traci’s birth father.
Traci and her mom lived a while in her mom’s car after the divorce before eventually moving to the US following a successful outing for Helen Reddy in a music competition. Helen Reddy was diagnosed with dementia in 2015 and passed away on September 29th, 2020, at the age of 78.
The divorce that happened early in Traci Wald Donat’s life seems so long ago that not many people can actually remember who Traci’s birth dad is. His name is Kenneth Claude Weate. Like Traci’s mother, Kenneth was also a musician whose work isn’t that prominent. He is also said to have worked with Helen Reddy, our subject’s mother on a number of her music projects.
Sources close to Traci Wald Donat and her family also claim that Kenneth Claude had been a family friend to the Reddys, Helen Reddy’s family prior to her marriage to him in 1961. It therefore might not seem far-fetched to conclude that the marriage was arranged. There is also the fact that other than music, Traci’s parents probably didn’t have much in common which might also explain why the marriage ended five years after it began and not too long after the birth of Traci. Not much is known about Traci’s birth father or what he is currently up to.
As earlier mentioned, Traci’s mom remarried and her second husband was Jeff Wald. This marriage lasted a bit longer, from 1966 to 1983. Jeff Wald was a Film and TV producer. He was also a manager who represented a lot of well-known faces and talents in the entertainment business such as Donna Summer, Sylvester Stallone, George Carlin, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Roseanne Barr, Mike Tyson, and of course his late ex-wife, singer, and activist, Helen Reddy. Jeff died on November 12, 2021, though the cause of death remains unknown. He was 77 when he died.
What does Traci Wald Donat do for a living?
Traci is a television director, a herbal specialist, and the co-founder of Donat/Wald Advertising Agency. As a director, she is prominent for a good number of TV and film productions. However, she is most recognized as the brain behind the filming and directing of the 1989 movie, A Nightmare On Drug Street. She’s also a herbalist and founder of the herbal company Simples, makers of Simple Tonics, and based in Santa Monica.
Traci learned almost all there is to know about herbs right from when she was young and credits her deep relationship with herbs to her vital health. Her company focuses on the energetic pull of herbs and how cultivating a relationship with plants is a deep and meaningful part of using them for healing. The profoundness and gentle manner with which she presents these healing plants to the public is one of the reasons why she has been so effective and successful.
Traci’s ad business is basically run by her husband, an ad executive, and chief brand officer of TrueCar. Their company, which was founded in 1987, has made waves as the agency responsible for bringing internet companies such as eharmony, LegalZoom, and Hotwire to the forefront of internet-based companies.
What is Traci Wald Donat’s net worth?
Traci hasn’t done too badly for herself financially. With a combination of at least three streams of income, including herbal healing, TV, film directing, and advertising, the 61-year-old has been able to amass a tidy net worth of an estimated $300k. The figure doesn’t look shabby at all and has helped Traci live her best life.
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She is active on social media
Despite being a relatively private individual, Traci’s passion for her business has compelled her to join the Instagram community. Her business page @simpletonics has close to 7k followers and has rich content of information regarding her herbal health practice. There are occasional personal posts but the majority of posts focus on herbal and plant-based living.
Traci has been married for 39 years
The 61-year-old herbal giant is happily married to Lucas Donat. Lucas is a former actor who currently works in advertising and branding. He co-founded a company with his wife Traci in 1987 called Donat/Wald Advertising Agency. Details of when they met or how they met are not exactly known because of the couple’s, mostly Traci’s, decision to keep their private matters, just that, private.
Traci has however revealed the date of her wedding to Lucas Donat to be July 20, 1984. The finer details like the location and number of guests in attendance have not been made known. Traci’s marriage has lasted for almost 40 years and has produced a child named Lily Donat. Her tenacious grip on her privacy means that not many people, apart from the ones close to her, know if there are more children in the marriage.