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Born in Miami, Florida, to a family of puppeteers, Leonora and Gerald Chapin (who was confined to a wheelchair after being stricken with polio), Robert Chapin (Bob) grew up making movies with his brother Stuart. He attended drama and music classes throughout junior high and high school, and in 1982 he received a music scholarship to Miami Dade Community College where he also studied computer science. At that time, he began training in stage combat and swordplay with The Royal Chessmen
* a group that performed living chessgames at local renaissance fairs.
Soon afterwards, he joined a jousting troupe called The Knights Arrant and a small troupe called Ring of Steel, which performed swordfights at a local theme park called "Pirates". It was here that he met Matthew Gratzner and Shannon Gans, who would later move to LA and create New Deal Studios.
Moving to Orlando, Florida in 1985, Bob worked his way through college at the University of Central Florida by performing swordfights at a local dinner theater called "Shakespeare's Tavern". In 1986, Bob's father passed, but Bob continued his studies until he graduated in 1987 with a degree in computer science. During this time, he also continued to take drama classes and choreographed swordfights for a critically acclaimed production of "Romeo and Juliet".
In 1989, Bob's brother convinced him to move to Los Angeles where he almost immediately found work as a swordsman on feature films such as "Hook" and "Army of Darkness". Bob's mother then passed in 1991, two years before Bob wrote and starred in his first feature film "Ring of Steel", which was distributed by MCA Universal. Over the years, Bob went on to star in several other action films while building his credit list as an actor, stuntman, and fight coordinator.
During this time, Bob also began a career as a visual effects artist, using his computer science degree to find work as a camera recordist at Pacific Data Images in LA. Moving from one company to the next: CFC, Manex, Cinesite, Zoic, and Hammerhead, Bob worked on several award-winning feature films such as "X-Men", "Crouching Tiger", "Fantastic Four", "Armageddon" and "American Beauty". Bob also supervised several indie films before he became the in-house VFX supervisor at New Deal Studios.
Bob continues to keep up his acting and swordfighting skills. He trained for several years with the infamous acting coach, Larry Moss, and was certified in six weapons as an actor-combatant in 1995 with the Societies of American, British, and Canadian Fight Directors at the First International Stage Combat Workshop in London, England. He has also trained in multiple martial arts forms including Tae Kwon Do with Hee Il Cho, Kali with the infamous Dan Inosanto, bullwhip with Anthony DeLongis, and Wushu with Eric Chen. As a stage combat instructor, Bob has taught classes at various workshops and colleges around the country, most notably UCLA, UCF, Strausberg, Westside Fencing Center, the Inosanto Academy, and the National Wushu Training Center.
Bob continues to develop his own work, most recently creating the first web series based on user content called "The Hunted", which can be found online at www.thehunted.tv. The show originally began as a class project for his stage combat students, but has now spread to include episode submissions from all over the world. In addition to producing and acting in the series, the show allows him the opportunity to explore his other interests in film production - from directing and editing, to music, marketing and web design.
