 Marcus Brooks is the show's rising pastry chef who often cuts through that chaos. He's played by actor Lionel Boyce, who says his own upbringing in Englewood, California, kind of prepared him for the role. I'm always, like, attracted to bigger personalities. My mom, she's always kind of been that way, very high energy, high strung, just exuberant. And my dad's kind of the opposite, where he's probably closer to how you see, what you see me in my performance, where he's very calm, quiet.