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Aloha & Welcome, my name is Marlon Rhoden, I was born on November 8, 1963, in a town of Port
Limon, San Jose, Costa Rica, a country in Central America. I remember there was a time when
most people had not known where Costa Rica was. Costa Rica sits between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, or what we used to call it, was the "Caribbean side". Limon is very tropical there is an array of beautiful birds, rain forest, volcano's, scenic trails and beaches, as far as the eye could see. Limon was also agricultural, coffee was imported and exported, we grew banana, cocoa beans, pineapple, sugarcane, coconuts, mangos, avocado's etc. Costa Rica is known as being a third world country.
My grandfather, Charles Rhoden was born in Kingston, Jamaica and migrated to Costa Rica in the late 30's, where he met and married my grandmother, Julia Lowe, they had three daughters, Victoria, Perlina and Muriel. My mother (Muriel) was studying nursing at the local college when she met my father, Oswald Bernard, a young college professor. My parents never married, but they both shared in my upbringing. My father was a strict educator and a scholar, he taught me values and that education was always first. In Costa Rica, education is our top priority. I learned to speak, read and write in both English and Spanish.
My grandmother was the strong matriarch in the family, she also took a great deal in my
upbringing, although she was not rich, she was rich in spirit and love. My grandparents were
farmers, they had a market stall, selling fruits and vegetables. I remember times when we would
wake up at 4 a.m. to catch the train to the farm, if the train was full our transportation
was a mule or a donkey. Life in Costa Rica was very poor, after college my mother left to America for a better life. When I turned 10 years old, I also was sent to America.
In the 80's, I got involved with acting in high school and started doing plays that lead to several
off Broadway shows in New York City. In 1996, I made my first (Feature) film debut in a surf drama called, "In God Hand's", playing the role of the sheriff's assistant. The following year, I worked as a "Set Production Assistant" on the set of "George of the Jungle", and also securing a scene in the movie, as being in the line-up as one of the persons that shot "George". In 1997, we shot a pilot for "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS), the same year I did a rock video for my Manager/Teacher, Lisa Seagram, called "Paradise Pictures".
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