In Their Own Words: Alex Chester-Iwata ’21 on Life Onstage and Off—and How SMC Provided Just the LEAP She Wanted

In Their Own Words is a series in which we introduce you to the Gaels you need to meet—students, alums, faculty, and staff—and let them tell their stories, in their own words.

Meet Alex Chester-Iwata ’21: A multi-talented actor, social media influencer, and Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Mixed Asian Media. In 2021, she earned her BA in Performing Arts through Saint Mary’s Liberal Education for Arts Professionals (LEAP) Program. Since 1999, LEAP has offered professional dancers and working artists like Chester-Iwata a flexible, supportive path toward a college degree. 

Love at first gig

My journey as an artist started, really, when I was five years old. My mom enrolled me in dance classes, and a few weeks later, one of my teachers told her, “We’re putting on the musical Gigi, and there’s this little girl role in the opening scene. Alex is perfect for it.” That became my very first professional theatre gig. I remember closing night vividly; I was just so happy my mom let me stay through the entire show and take a bow at the end. Usually, I just went home to go to bed!

That was the beginning for me. I started performing more and modeling. At one point, if you walked into FAO Schwartz, the toy store, there was a giant poster of me with a bunch of Barbies. My hand is in the ad for Rollerblade Barbie, which got discontinued because kids would spray hairspray on it, and the doll would spark and catch fire. I was really hoping Rollerblade Barbie would make the cut in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film…

Doing the work

Image

By high school graduation, I was pretty established as a performer. I’d been on ER and Seventh Heaven and done a commercial for the Chevy Geo. When I was 14, I was one of the first members of DREAM, a girl group produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs. As you can imagine, that was a horrible experience, and I left before the group really took off. I also got close to contracts with Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, but in both cases, I was deemed “too exotic.” “You know, we love her, but she just doesn't fit the family situation,” we were told. That was, unfortunately, a common experience for biracial actors like me.

While I’ve continued doing television and film, theatre has always been my true passion. In the last decade or so, I’ve performed in regional shows, tours, and Broadway runs. I was in the first all-Asian cast of Hello Dolly! In 2022, I got the chance to originate a role in the world premiere of This Space Between Us Off-Broadway. And for multiple years, I was part of the ensemble of How the Grinch Stole Christmas at Madison Square Garden.  

Leaping into (and out) of LEAP

I graduated high school at 16 to start performing full-time and planned on going to college part-time. For two semesters, I attended Cal State Long Beach, until a theatre professor really encouraged me to leave. “You’re a professional already,” he told me. “You’re equity, you're in a touring production; why are you here?” After talking it through with my mom, I decided to leave and focus on performing.

Around 2011, I was in the Aladdin show at Disney’s California Adventure, and several friends in the cast were earning their degrees through LEAP. That's how I originally heard of it. I was definitely intrigued. You mean I can get college credit for the work I’ve already done? That was a big factor. 

The other draw was the flexibility. You really can go at the pace you need. One of my friends, for instance, finished the program in two years. On the other hand, I took a ten-year hiatus from LEAP when I moved to New York City. I knew, if I were going to be auditioning for shows, pounding that pavement, I would not have the bandwidth to include school. 

So I took a break—a really long one! And then, when I was ready, I started up again in 2019. 

“It’s important to nurture other things that make you you, and not have your whole identity wrapped up in performance. If you have an inkling of something that you might want to do, explore that. LEAP can help.”

Making it hers

I loved how LEAP professors allowed me to tailor my coursework to my own career trajectory. Whatever I was working on, they supported. Back in 2017, my friends and I started an online magazine called Hapa Mag—now Mixed Asian Media, or MAM—to address a real lack of representation of mixed Asian and Pacific Islanders working in TV, film, and theatre. It was just for fun at first. But by 2020, the magazine was really taking off. MAM, I was starting to realize, could actually be my main job. 

For my senior project, I was paired with Jill Randall, an adjunct LEAP professor who had run her own dance magazine. Jill helped me think through what a marketing plan for MAM could look like. We’d have regular talks every week, and she was a great sounding board. Honestly, she really helped us think of the magazine as a business. That really helped me transition into the full-time position I have now.