Yes, we still allow Brits into this country and Richard Mazda is one of them. His acting career was taking off in England — in a Harry Potter movie and a hugely successful soap opera — when his second wife was offered a chance to open a store in New York City for a fashionable British firm. “A great opportunity,” he told her, and they tried to conduct a very long-distance marriage. Then his teen-aged daughter from his prior marriage achieved her “golden ticket” of acceptance in the Brit School for the Performing Arts and someone from her family “rang the school and caused them to rescind her place.” A family crisis ensued. Richard called New York to beg the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts to let his daughter audition — and she “aced it.” So Richard, who “always appreciated the American ‘can-do’ attitude" gave up his career and a successful side business in London to move to New York. Without a local agent he worked as a temp, installed roller blinds — did anything to make ends meet — until he founded (and still runs) the 99-seat Secret Theater in Long Island City.

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