Kaipo Schwab

Kaipo Schwab was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, the 2nd of 5 children to a Hawaiian/Chinese mother and German/Irish father. His introduction to acting began at the age of 4 appearing in commercials for his Dad's furniture company and then moving on to being featured in numerous local television shows and winning state and National awards in Shakespeare recitation and Speech and Debate with the National Forensics League. He continued to learn his craft at Boston University School for the Arts where he earned his BFA in Acting in 1993 and attended The British American Drama Academy, where he studied acting from Yale Drama School's master teacher Earle Gister and actress Diana Quick. After graduation, Kaipo moved to New York to pursue his acting career, and during the next two decades, he would work as an actor and director with major theaters including The Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Hartford Stage Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Geva Theater and The New York Theatre Workshop, where he is a Usual Suspect (their official company of artists). In 2004 he was selected to direct part of ABC Television's Cultural Diversity Showcase. Not one to wait for opportunities to come to him, he founded the Imua! Theatre Company in 1994, where he produced and directed the highly acclaimed shows THE GREEKS, BALM IN GILEAD, and JULIUS CAESAR as well as helping develop and support artists in their early career like Ken Leung, Leslie Bibb, Michael John Garces, Russell Hornsby, Aaron Yoo, Hoon Lee, Nilaja Sun, Russell G. Jones, Yvonne Jung, and Anthony Ruivivar. Kaipo has directed 2 short films for the company (WHITE RABBIT and DEAD END) and a web series (HELP WANTED). Although the stage is his first love, Kaipo is just as comfortable both in front of and behind the camera. He has appeared on Film (The Royal Tenenbaums, It Could Happen To You, Fair Game, Anesthesia) and Television (Orange Is the New Black, Grey's Anatomy, Gotham, and The Mysteries of Laura - among many others). He is also the owner of 15 Minutes of Frame, a video and film production company. Kaipo studied with acting coach Peter Kelley and is repped by Janelle Bernard at the Daniel Hoff Agency and Sean Dubravac at Entertainment Lab in Los Angeles. Kaipo and his wife, Hope, live in Los Angeles with their son, Giovanni, and their one-eyed pug, Wink.