Matt Chan
Matthew Chan, 71, passed away peacefully in the comfort of his Seattle home on the evening of Saturday, March 30th, 2024, surrounded by his close friends and family. Matt, who had been battling cancer, leaves behind a rich legacy of community activism, mentorship, and professional achievement.
Matt was a fourth-generation Chinese American born to Art and Rosie Chan in Portland, OR, where he attended Cleveland High School before studying broadcast communications at the University of Oregon where he discovered his passion for TV production and storytelling and became a lifelong Ducks fan.
After graduating, he went on to pursue a successful career in media, starting out as an editor and eventually becoming a producer at KING TV in Seattle, WA before moving to KPIX (CBS)’s Evening Magazine in San Francisco. Matt became Creative Services Director of KXTV in Sacramento, CA and eventually returned to Seattle to start his own production company, Screaming Flea Productions, responsible for producing long-running non-fiction series such as Hoarders and Sell This House for national cable networks. Throughout his career, Matt’s work has earned recognition and awards including regional and national Emmys. After his retirement, Matt continued to remain active by using his storytelling expertise to empower others to learn how to use their voices to tell their own stories.
As a lifelong learner, Matt honed his storytelling ability to an artform and dedicated his life to passing on this knowledge to young communications professionals through citizen journalism workshops and as an adjunct professor at University of Washington’s graduate Communications Leadership program. Above all, Matt was a champion for ethnic media and worked to challenge systemic barriers for people of color in the communications industry. He believed in using the skills he acquired over his 40-year career to help people and give back to communities of color.
The Chinatown-International District held a special place in his heart and he volunteered his time and expertise, producing videos for nonprofit organizations such as the Wing Luke Museum, InterIm CDA, ICHS, CISC, Kin On, International Examiner, NW Asian Weekly, and El Centro de la Raza. Matt also produced campaign videos and provided mentorship to a new generation of young political candidates of color including King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, Port Commissioners Sam Cho, Hamdi Mohamed, and Toshiko Grace Hasegawa, State Senator Joe Nguyen, and Seattle Councilmember Tanya Woo.
Later in life, Matt sought to give voice to communities of color through community activism along with his wife Gei and other C-ID community leaders who successfully led a grassroots campaign to halt construction of a nearby homeless shelter scheduled to be built without community input. Matt also reunited with longtime friend and former broadcast journalist Enrique Cerna where they created the podcast Chino y Chicano together to discuss local issues facing people of color in Seattle. His latest project titled Unfiltered with Converge Media was created in collaboration with Cerna, journalist Omari Salisbury, and former Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez.
In his personal life, Matt filled his time with various hobbies including fly fishing, playing golf, coaching youth sports, riding his bike, reading mystery novels, playing video games, keeping up with tv shows and movies, and spending time with his grandchildren. Matt was an avid foodie and shared his love of cooking with friends and family, and also volunteered to teach cooking classes through Nikkei Horizons. One of his favorite family vacation activities was spending time on the beach in Kauai.
Those who were close to Matt remember his quick wit, directness, brash sense of humor, honesty, integrity, and above all else, his curiosity and care for the community. Matt was a rare person who saw beyond ideological differences to seek understanding and form connections to bring people together and work for a better future. His legacy lives on in the many people whose lives he touched over the years and his memory will never be forgotten.
Matt is preceded in death by his parents Art and Rosie Chan, and his sister Madeline. He is survived by his wife Gei, son Max and his fiancee Auriza, daughter Althea, grandchildren Kian and Sage, and their father Ryan.
A private memorial service for his close friends and family in honor of his legacy will be held on Thursday, May 16th.
Donations in Matt’s memory can be made to local ethnic media organizations Converge Media, International Examiner, and Northwest Asian Weekly, in addition to local C-ID nonprofits InterIm CDA, ICHS, and the Wing Luke Museum.
Sponsored by the Chan family.