Born and raised in Pearl City, Hawaii, Sheldon attended Kamehameha Schools, a Native Hawaiian serving institution with a vigorous performing arts department. He was raised speaking the Hawaiian language and performing traditional hula and chant while also studying ballet and musical theater. He grew up doing productions with casts made up of local actors, many of them of mixed Polynesian and Asian ethnicities. Leading roles were often played by local actors of color which made seeing people that looked like him on stage the norm. When he left the islands to attend Chapman University in Orange, CA, the reality that characters were cast from a certain ethnic background was an eye-awakening learning curve.
 
He rarely saw himself authentically represented in the traditional musical theater canon outside of Hawaii, and because of this, he leaned away from theater and dove into dance roles. He secured his first professional job performing in parades at Disneyland which led to a plethora of other opportunities in Orlando, FL at Walt Disney World including High School Musical at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the national tour of Disney Live, Mickey’s Rockin’ Road Show. 

“Read our interview with Teatro San Diego Artistic Director, Sheldon Gomabon.”

After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Theater, Dance, and Cultural Anthropology, he moved to New York City. There he worked with Disney Theatrical Productions at The New Amsterdam Theatre and found an artistic home with organizations like Musical Theatre Factory and The Tank NYC, spaces that cultivated new musical theater works in its developmental process. He began to create relationships with writers and artists of color who were creating more authentic representations in their own original work. This sparked a passion to find more platforms for actors and artists of color to develop new work in musical theater.

He moved to San Diego in 2020 to attend the MFA in musical theater program at San Diego State University to continue learning how to create these platforms from the ground up. There he met his classmate, Julio Cataño, one of the founders of Teatro San Diego. They instantly related to feeling like an outsider in the field and shared a mission to use their experiences and relationships to build a professional platform in San Diego. Most recently, Sheldon served as assistant director to Stafford Arima at The Old Globe in "Dial M For Murder," assistant director to Jesca Prudencio at the Musical Theatre Factory (NYC) in "Unremarkable" and is currently a parade performer at Disneyland in "Magic Happens."