The youngest son of a gas station owner, who ran an oil pipe supply business and mother – substitute school teacher, Dustin was born in Uvalde, Texas, but grew up in Longview, Texas where he graduated from the local High School. Showing little interest in his father’s oil business, which his two brothers later joined, Dustin was longing for a change of scenery, and spent a year in Australia, washing dishes and shoveling chicken manure. Back to the States, he attended the University of Texas in Austin, originally wishing to be a lawyer. But, when he discovered an inspirational Og Mandino book “The Greatest Salesman in the World” before one of his final exams, he suddenly knew he had to change his major from law to film.

Simply, the rest is history.