{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi","title":"Episode 047: Bet on Yourself Before Anyone Else Sees It with Walid Chaya","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3711,"description":"Episode Summary\nWalid Chaya grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia, the son of Lebanese immigrants who crossed an ocean with two thousand dollars, no English, and a plan that did not include their son becoming an actor. They pictured a doctor. A lawyer. Something with a name everybody recognized. Then Walid was five years old and went backstage at an Arabic musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in Lebanon, saw a bag of money that turned out to be a deck of playing cards, and fell completely in love with the organized chaos behind the curtain. He memorized every word of that show. He can still recite it today.\nWhat followed was a commitment to a path with no salary, no map, and no promise it would ever pay off. And nobody warned him about the gap. The part of the story that sits between the dream and the arrival. Years of doing everything right. The training, the auditions, the commute from his cousin's house in Connecticut to Hell's Kitchen every day through the darkness of a New York winter. The side gigs tutoring students. The PA work on set. The friends at NBC who could not get their own resume to the seventh floor. And the moment he was already in his car on the highway heading back to DC to pack up and quit, when a single text message from a friend with an acting studio arrived and he pulled straight off the exit.\nHe did not quit. He stayed eight years in New York. He built a teaching career alongside the acting career. He moved to LA. He opened his own studio. Nineteen years and eight locations later, Studio for Performing Arts LA is the official acting partner of the City of West Hollywood. He has appeared on Madam Secretary, The Blacklist, Hulu projects, and award-winning independent films. He is now directing and producing his own feature film, Crazy Rich Arabs, a twin identity-swap comedy that he describes as The Parent Trap meets Crazy Rich Asians with a Beirut backdrop, in which he plays both twins. He told his parents he may not have become a doctor or...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bvg3em96AOxVPLqwVao5_m5h-Qdbm8H6_VrYU8WT40M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yZGQ2/MDBlNjNiYWJmZTM5/NjczNjA3OTA5OGJk/YjFhZi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}