Christopher’s Story

Born and raised in Northern California, Chris also has some roots in Hawaii, where he spent summers visiting his grandparents and extended family. He moved to Pittsburgh with the intention of earning a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University. Instead, he ended up opening a martial arts school and becoming and actor and model. 

Although this seems a surprising turn of events, in retrospect it makes sense. Chris has been involved in martial arts or gymnastics nearly his entire life. Similarly, he has long held a fascination with stories, writing them as a kid and acting or working crew in school and community productions until his family convinced him to do something “practical”. So much for that. As much as he enjoyed research, he is much more drawn to the arts, where he has ended up.

He trains as an actor with Jill Wadsworth, a drama professor at CMU, through the Donna Belajac Actors Studio. There he has been exposed him to various techniques such as the Stanislavsky, Meisner, and Active Analysis. He also works with on-camera and modeling coach, Alejandro Soto.

Besides acting and modeling, Chris is a highly accomplished martial artist with an academy in Pittsburgh where he teaches several Chinese Martial arts styles and the Afro- Brazillian martial art of Capoeira Angola. He trains in Pittsburgh, New York City and San Francisco.