SUMMER 2014 SPECIAL SECTION

Blessed By Nuns,
Approved By Oprah
The unique and continuing journey of
Marina Sousa and “Just Cake.”
by Michelle Howard
When Marina Sousa was tasked with creating an erupting
volcano for her fifth grade science class, she opted for different
materials over the traditional papier-mâché. Having just
completed a Wilton class (the one and only cake decorating class
she’d ever take), Marina used a doll dress pan and the Wilton star
tip to make a chocolate volcano cake. Her classmates and teacher
were impressed with her creativity and delighted to enjoy an
unexpected treat. Perhaps even more unexpected, however, was the
fact that they were the first in a long list of Marina’s cake clients
that someday would include Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey.
Born in Fremont, California and raised on the state’s beautiful
Central Coast, Marina enjoyed a childhood filled with inspiration
and support from two creative mentors. “My mom was extremely
creative and sewed and cooked and baked all the time,” she recalls.
“I was sewing doll clothes at age 6, and baking right along with
my mom and grandma.”
Baking, though, was neither her first nor second career. At
just 16, Marina was accepted via early admissions to the Fashion
Institute of Design & Merchandising, and began taking classes on
the San Francisco campus only two weeks after graduating high
school. She studied Visual Merchandising & Space Design, and
after earning her degree, started an internship at the city’s FAO
Schwartz doing window displays. “It was totally fun working with
toys and building these over-the-top displays,” she recalls. After a
while, however, she began looking for her next adventure.
“I’d been doing a bit of display work for Macy’s in San
Francisco, too, and I decided to transfer with them to Los
Angeles,” she says. “I’d always wanted to live in L.A., but I
didn’t know a soul there and I was only working part time, so
I decided to take a couple of classes at a junior college, mainly
to meet people and get to know the area. I happened to take an
introduction to theater class and fell in love with theater.”
This new passion spurred Marina to return to school fulltime,
and she enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.
There, she earned her graduate degree in theatrical production
management.
Following graduation, Marina began an internship with
Universal Studios Hollywood. “My job was producing special
events – grand openings, movie premiers, that kind of thing,” she
explains. “I loved it, but after a couple of years, it was kind of like
corporate anything – the higher up you go, the farther away from
the fun part of it you get.”
As the shine was wearing off her Universal Studios job, Marina
was approached by a company called MediaWorks. “They were in
entertainment advertising, and recruited me to be their director
of production operations,” she recalls. “I was excited to have the
opportunity to learn the post-production side of the business, so
I made the leap. What I learned, however, was that I really didn’t
like it very much. “
Having been at Universal, Marina was accustomed to working
more than 60 hours a week, but the experience was entirely
different. “Because I was always at an event then, I had the illusion
that I had a social life,” she explains. “At MediaWorks, it required
the same amount of time, but I spent the days solving everyone’s
problems in the office and then after 6:00 when they all left, I
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