Dave Hope

Dave Hope (Dave Victor MacMillan) is an actor, singer, front man, film maker and public figure. Hope spent the majority of his time as a teenager dedicated to social advocacy and community organizing for youth and disabilities causes. At 18 years of age Dave formed the Ska/Punk rock band Scarred Hope, in 2003 Scarred Hope recorded the LP titled "Blue Collar Suicide" with legendary American punk rock producer Mass Giorgini. The album has since gained a somewhat mythical status in underground/punk rock circles. (Only bootlegs of the master have ever been released). After leaving high school Dave worked for a few years as a nightclub bouncer at some infamous bars, strip clubs and in triad owned establishments in and around Brisbane's, Fortitude Valley. It was during this time that he first became certified and also started working as a private investigator and bodyguard. Hope continued his social advocacy and community work into young adulthood and held many management positions on local government and community committees. In 2005 Hope relocated to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam where he began to work as a security operations manager and close personal protection professional and commercial intelligence. In 2008 Hope started to appear in cameo and bit part roles in Vietnamese theater, live shows and motion pictures. In 2010 he made international news when he unearthed the remains of a foreign prisoner of the Khmer Rouge in Kampong Cham, Cambodia that was initially believed to have been those of missing photojournalist Sean Flynn. Test results on the human remains found at the grave site in eastern Kampong Cham province, Cambodia, were released on June 30, 2010, and they were found not to be the remains of Sean Flynn. Lt. Col. Wayne Perry of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) said there was no match between DNA from the recovered remains and DNA samples they had on file from the Flynn family. The remains to this day have not been positively identified although out of the list potential candidates which pool consists of mostly Caucasian foreign journalists captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1970; the tentative identity of the victim has been able to narrowed down to two candidates. The controversial recovery is the subject of Hope's first documentary film "Objective Sierra Foxtrot 1588" a film that was produced on a shoe string budget with Dave's younger brother tagging along and acting as videographer. In 2011 Hope moved to Los Angeles, California and began working in reality television, documentary film, and television presenting and began collaborating with Hollywood producer Scott Einbinder of ANA MEDIA. In 2012 Hope starred in the Pilot Episode for the feature length reality film "Bone Squad: The M.I.A. Hunter"; the film detailed Hope's investigation work in Vietnam and Cambodia relating to missing in action soldiers and journalists from the Indochina conflicts. In 2013 Hope started to actively investigate simultaneously Missing In Action, Missing Persons, Endangered Animal trafficking, Unsolved homicides and dog meat trafficking. In 2015 Hope started to work with Mark Hammer Dixon former bodyguard to Chopper Read and Roger Rogerson, developing a true crime feature film detailing Hammer's life story. In 2016 he starred in the Pilot Episode for "Hope For Dogs" a television show that is an expose of the illegal dog meat trade in Vietnam, he also returned to rock n roll and completed his first album in 10 years with his new band Seabrae. On August 3rd 2016 Seabrae released their first music video "Dream Surfer". On January 1st 2017 Seabrae released their debut self titled album online through Specific Pacifica records. In 2017 Hope will be releasing a new documentary called "The Punk Detective". Hope resides in Bien Hoa, Vietnam where he works as a father, martial arts instructor, security company operator, educator and tutor.