We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Sun Lee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael Sun , appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

It was back in College when I had to take acting classes in order to get my grades up. I was failing and a counselor suggested I take a class I would enjoy so I took an acting class. Then, I started auditioning for theater and doing college musicals like “West Side Story”, “Leader Of The Pack” etc… (My GPA went up and I was able to finish College. Graduating College was the hardest thing I have ever done.) After that, I moved to Los Angeles, and 20 years later I am still pursuing this professional creative path.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After performing in theater in College and graduating with with a B.A. in Communications. I moved to Los Angeles to seek creative professional opportunities. Primarily I am an actor but I fell into the world of voice over – doing animation, video games, narration, and dubbing. I am an all in, ride or die kind of person so the commitment to these type of works can be self sacrificing yet gratifying to say the least. Being in service comes natural for me, especially with my expertise in hospitality that I cultivated while working thru College. I like to go beyond what is expected and be my word just for the sake of integrity. I like to trouble shoot and contribute to the customer/client experience. Most of the things I have been proud of have been things that were ‘unseen” or “under the radar” such as some of the voiceover work I have done over the years which have gone unseen but not unheard.. I am also proud of some of the notable on camera jobs I have had on shows like “Hawaii Five-O” , “Fuller House”, “NCIS”, “CSI”, etc… I love the episodic TV format and it is right in my wheelhouse.
I love doing it all actually, and now I have found enjoyment in social media content creation. Lets connect on Social Media!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, In my early years in Los Angeles, I remember when I had a hard time finding any type of job, I lost 15 lbs from lack of nutrition, I was catching the bus, eating my meals from the 99c store, was 15k in credit card debt, had $0 in savings, and only $7 in my checking account. That is all behind me now and currently, At present, 20 years later, I am only incrementally better as far as finances go, last year I made 9k and am currently on food stamps BUT I am still trying.
Some people call it resilience, other people call it stupidity, some call it dumbness – and I agree with them all , HOWEVER, I would call it numbness – numb to the setbacks, numb to the challenges, and numb to the roadblocks etc,.. because all of those things are givens in my opinion, they are already set up and built into the road you take to pursue something you love so you have to get used to those hindering forces.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have been lucky on Social Media and am still learning. It is a learn while you go type of thing. There are many tips content creators post to grow your following so I would pay attention to those things and it seems like consistency is key. Off and on I get asked to be a social media influencer to feature different restaurants, businesses, etc…and I have learned a lot from the other influencers that consistently post content, many of them started by posting content for just pure enjoyment and many of them get paid doing it. It is time consuming work so I would advise that you start posting stuff you enjoy while embracing the new technologies available to those specific social media platforms.
The followers I have gained on Instagram have been due to a couple of popular shows that I have appeared on. I also had a video on TikTok go viral with 16M views or so with no social media strategy, it was just luck.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/michaelsunlee
• Instagram: @MichaelSunLee
• Facebook: @MichaelSunLee
• Linkedin: @MichaelSunLee
• Twitter: @MichaelSunlee
• Youtube: Michael Sun Lee