Radmar Agana Jao, SJ is an priest and former actor.[1]
Originally from Valparaiso, Indiana, USA and comes from a family of nine children. He was born in Gary, Indiana on 7 November 1966 to Tessie Agana, a Filipina actress from the 1950s. He received his bachelor’s degree in Communications from Indiana University, then moved to Los Angeles and became an actor, working in film (The Phantom, Minority Report, Diplomatic Siege), television (Seinfeld, Will and Grace, Dharma and Greg, ER), and stage (Sweeney Todd, A Language of their Own, Heading East - The Musical). He also volunteered for an after school arts intervention program called inside Out, working with at-risk youth in some of the roughest neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Jao entered the California Province of the Society of Jesus in 2001, and since earned a Masters degree in Applied Philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago. During his two-year regency assignment at the University of San Francisco he taught acting and theatre appreciation, and worked with the University Ministry team leading CLC groups and coordinating retreats. Jao completed a master’s of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, where alongside his studies he served as a campus minister at the Cal Berkeley Newman Center, as chaplain for the Children's Hospital of Oakland, and as deacon at St. Agnes Parish in San Francisco. In the summer of 2010 Radmar completed the two-month training program at the Loyola House Retreat and Training Center in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Jao was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on June 11, 2011. Jao's first mission after ordination is to serve on the Provincial Staff of the California Province as the Province Vocation Promoter.