Thom Sesma

"I was born in Sasebo, Japan, and raised in San Diego, California. My dad was an American Naval officer and my mother was from a traditional Japanese family. I attended UC San Diego where I studied Modern European Intellectual History. Fully convinced that my degree had somehow qualified me for a life in show business, I began my acting career not long after, moving to New York where I made my Broadway debut in the original production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. Since then I’ve managed to spend most of my life in rehearsal studios, on stages large and small, in front of cameras on tv and film sets around the country, in works ranging from classical theatre to splashy musical comedies, from police procedurals and hospital dramas to soap operas and sitcoms.

I’m very proud of my Basque-American and Japanese heritage, and I am a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in every field of our profession. The challenges that I’ve faced as an actor of color have influenced and continue to influence my work in what I hope are positive ways, and if that has changed even one person’s mind - one who could never before have imagined an Asian-American Sweeney Todd, or an Asian-American Tolstoy, or a designer of RMS Titanic, a Christie murder mystery suspect with an incomprehensible Italian accent, or a drag queen in St Tropez, any of whom could be portrayed by an Asian American - that will be enough."