Mr.Thusitha De Silva was born in the town of Balapitiya, Sri Lanka. He graduated from Thurstan College Colombo, Sri Lanka and presently works for the famous business entity GUESS. He lives in Pasadena, California with his beautiful wife Sudarshani and two children Parami and Lithum. Mr. De Silva was also the President of Sri Lanka Arts & Drama circle in 2004 and was Vice President of the Sri Lanka America Association of Southern California in 2006 and a member of the working committee at the Sri Lanka America Buddha Dhamma Society since 2010.
Writing lines about Mr. de Silva’s is an easy mission as he is a well known figure within the Sri Lankan Community in the USA. During Thusitha’s younger days his passion was playing rugby and cricket at Thurstan College, Colombo, but soon that changed after he migrated to USA and in 1999 when he started associating with Dr. Mudalinayake Somarathna ,Bhadrajee Mahinda Jayathilaka, Sunethra Sarathchandra, Kisagothami Sarathchandra, Somi Rathnayake, and Linton Semage and was involved in many dramas staged on US soil.
Mr. De Silva’s very first musical concert was held in Los Angeles in 2005 to promote Sri Lanka’s Baila Maestro Nihal Nelson, since then there was no looking back for Mr. De Silva to continue his passion. Mr. De Silva has produced 21 successful Sri Lankan concerts to his credit and sponsored well over 200 professional artists, band members and dance troupes to come all the way to Los Angeles from Sri Lanka and make their presence. He just completed two musicals in April and September, and collections of which he donated $10,000 for a kidney transplant to Mr. Athula Saman Halgama. In October 2016 he organized a raffle draw to raise funds for Sun Valley Maithree Vihara, California to buy Solar Power panels for the temple buildings costing nearly $40,000, while the winner of the raffle received $10,000. He uses his amazing marketing skills to attract the Sri Lankan community in and around California, at times drawing in as much as 2277 people in April 2015 for the Gypsies and Channa Upuli show.
Mr. De Silva is ever ready to give generously to the need of the community. In 2015 he also donated a Water purification plant to the Dimbulagala Forest Monastery in Sri Lanka, where nearly 100 monks live their monastic life, undergoing a lot of hardships. He also brought up an idea of building a Stupa (pagoda) in Sambudhaloka Vihara in Moreno Valley, California which was the first Stupa in California and a second in the USA and was able to accomplish it by taking a leading part of contacting and coordinating necessary parties and personally involving in raising funds. Besides his talents of producing musicals, he also finds time to be involved in charitable activities as well. You will not fail to see Mr. De Silva and his family in attendance at all temples and any event in Los Angeles may it be a Pirith Ceremony, Katina Ceremony, Alms Giving, New Year celebration, Independence Day celebration, or any other event organized by some other group, with plenty to give to the community. Mr. De Silva has been donating money monthly to two school kids and their families in Sri Lanka through a program which is controlled by Rev. Dhammajothi Thero who resides at the Crenshaw Temple in Los Angeles.
His message to the community is to be open and attend as many different shows to experience and value all artists instead of focusing on the event organizer. This is one of his key objectives to bring everyone together under one flag. He does not expect anything in return, instead, would like to see everyone having a good time at his shows, which gives him great satisfaction.
