I was raised in Western Massachusetts with a simple rural childhood. I was a very curious and creative child and came to love poetry as early as kindergarten. Experimenting and asking many questions about the world and the meaning of things led me all over the globe.
As a college student, I followed a real winding path. After graduating from a vocational technical school studying Metal Fabrication, I thought that my curiosity would be best expressed through technology and engineering. I studied at Wentworth Institute in Boston, where I studied Electro-Mechanical engineering. I learned so much but also faced great personal challenges to growing in that field.
I returned to Western Mass, where I started to write poetry, paint, and made a career change into business. I decided to leave the country and study abroad far away from what I was used to. That landed me in Shanghai, China, and Barcelona, Spain. 2014 and 2015 were transformational years for me. I learned so much about myself and discovered my values through all of the changes.
Although I was always creative, my inner awakening all started in January, 2015 with me buying a sketchbook in a small shop in Barcelona. Living in Spain as a student, I got to experience amazing art, from Picasso and Dali, to centuries-old masters like Velázquez and Goya. Getting out of class, I would go to my favorite coffee shop or one of the parks and sketch daily. For me, sketching was a way to capture my inner thoughts and try to let my imagination manifest itself on paper. After four months living there, I managed to fill three large notebooks with sketches, and returned to the US with a renewed excitement for creating art. Starting with pen-on-paper sketches, I then experimented with watercolor, and eventually worked with acrylics.
After graduating college in 2016 from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts I had a degree in Business Management, but a calling to the performing arts. I actually stayed back a semester before graduating so I could take courses in acting, theater production, writing, and languages. With the help of my dear friends John Sherman and Julia Grey, I got into Williamstown Theater Festival as an Acting Apprentice. That summer propelled me deep into the theater community at breakneck speed. I made many close friends, and I told them all I would move to NYC after the summer ended. My friend John said something along the lines of “you would be the only one holding yourself back,” and with John agreeing to purchase my grandfather’s car that was bequeathed to me, I had enough to make the idea possible. John’s dear friend, Frank Davis, opened his apartment to me so I could help find housing in the city, and I spent a few weeks back and forth looking across the boroughs. Through fate, I landed on a place in Jackson Heights, and Julia Grey helped me move all of my stuff into my new place. Shortly after the move, the hustle began. With a backpack and a stack of resumes, I went to every gig and temp agency to make life in the city work.
After a few years of working in and around New York Theater, my partner Yue pushed me to go back to school if I wanted to take acting seriously. I auditioned for Atlantic Acting School and was accepted into their Full-Time Conservatory. I was studying stage acting, writing, script analysis, and voice work for two and a half years, and I grew so much in my skills and as an overall person.
In 2019, Yue and I got married in City Hall and celebrated in the then-original Jing Fong. That winter, we visited China together and had a traditional Chinese-style wedding with both families.
I completed acting school in 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and quickly lost all of my gig work and post-graduation acting opportunities. Needing to pivot my work to something that could provide immediate income, I found a position working in Marketing for a non-profit.
In 2022, I became a father, and the whole world changed once again for me. Since then, I have solidified myself as “Super 爸爸”, with the power to read 10 books a night, make the perfect snack plate, perform dozens of characters on queue, and so much more.
In 2026, I find myself at a moment where the call back to producing art and showcasing it is stronger than ever. With so much political, social, economic, and technological pressure compounding on working-class global citizens, this call to art seems, in part, to try to understand and share what is happening around us. “To hold the “twere, the mirror up to nature” but also an act of solidarity as we witness great injustices occur to Earth and its people.
Thank you for reading about my journey. I hope to keep producing thought-provoking stories, photos, and other media, and look forward to the chance to grow as an artist with my family and friends.