Actor Marcus Chait 91 talks business and Broadway

Marcus Chait 91 has tackled a multitude of careers as an actor, producer and family business owner since earning his master's degree.

Growing up in the Bay Area, Chait shared, I don't think I know how much we grew up here. As I grew up and lived all over the world, I realized what a great place Menlo Park was. I spent a good part of my adult life trying to get back here.

Chait described his time in MA as a fantastic time in my life. He loved the Spanish program with Mr. Casca and his favorite class was psychology.

During the summer between his junior and senior years, Chait and his history class took a two-week trip to Europe, which he remembers as his greatest memory of MA. He said: “We didn't have a lot of supervision and were just able to explore Europe ourselves, which made it really special.

At MA, Chait played soccer for three years and helped start the men's volleyball team, which is still thriving today.

As a child, Chait and his family spent summers in Tahoe, where he played beach volleyball. He then joined an indoor club competition team at Gunn High School because MA didn't have a team at the time. He said: My friends and I eventually formed a team at MA and I played volleyball for the rest of high school.

He added: “It’s nice to know that something I started is still at the MA today.

Chait later played volleyball at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB). He initially majored in psychology but always had an interest in the arts. He said: “I was so focused on sport that I never had time to take part in drama activities in graduate school, so university was my time to do that.

After two years at UCSB, Chait transferred to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he majored in theater and television as well as musical theater. Just three months after graduating from Carnegie Mellon, Chait booked his first Broadway show, Cyrano de Bergeracand continued to work as an actor for the next 15 years in New York and Los Angeles.

Chait was also present Miss Saigon, Titanic, Urban CowboyAnd Pirate Queen on Broadway. He is best known for his role in Million dollar baby which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005 and Northern country which is based on a historic sexual harassment case. Chait has also starred in various television shows including The Experts: Miami And Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

He said: “After acting for so long, I realized I was much more interested in producing, so I started a production company in Los Angeles which I eventually sold in 2012.

He continued: After selling my business, I wanted to know how to bring my family back to the Bay Area. So I met with various tech companies and eventually started an entertainment division for a large publishing company. It was really special to come back to the Bay Area after so long.

Around the same time, Chait took over his family's diamond and jewelry business called 66mint, established in 1912 and a family business since 1951. Located in San Francisco, 66mint specializes in the purchase and sale of diamonds as well as fine jewelry. He has now been running 66mint for 12 years and continues to balance his business with production.

For three years, Chait has simultaneously produced a Broadway show called Lost Boysa rock musical about a family moving to a town filled with vampires in the 1980s. Chait said, “It's really cool to be able to work in production and run my family business at the same time.”

Chaits' advice to master's students: Don't decide at 18 what you're going to do for the rest of your life. You never know what opportunities will come your way, so keep an open mind and try new things. Make sure that whatever you do, do it with all the passion, energy and focus you have.