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Masi Oka
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Masayori "Masi" Oka (pronounced /masi/) (born December 27, 1974 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Golden-Globe-nominated Japanese-American actor and digital effects artist. He has performed in many films and TV shows, and is currently cast in the role of Hiro Nakamura in the NBC series Heroes. He has recently finished filming his new movie Balls of Fury, which is scheduled to be released in 2007. He was born in Tokyo, Japan and moved to Los Angeles, California, United States at the age of six. He currently resides in California.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Interests
- 3 Early Life
- 4 Career
- 5 Filmography
- 5.1 As an actor
- 5.2 As a digital effects artist
- 6 References
- 7 External links
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Biography
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics from Brown University in 1997 and also worked at George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic as a programmer working on many top-grossing Hollywood movies such as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean series. [1]
Interests
Oka is fluent in
Japanese,
English and
German and is proficient in
Spanish. His hobbies include
kendo (Japanese fencing), playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the
piano, and singing. He avidly collects comic books and
manga. He attended elementary school at
Mirman School and graduated high school from
Harvard-Westlake School in
1992. He has stated in an interview on
G4tv that he has played
World of Warcraft extensively and ran a guild in the past on the
Spinebreaker realm.
Early Life
In 1987, a 12-year-old Oka was featured on the cover of Time Magazine titled "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids". Though he was not featured in the article itself, he knew the photographer who took the shot.[1] He has an IQ of 180.[2] Ten years later, he graduated from Brown University.
Career
Oka landed his first job after graduation at the San Francisco, California branch of Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas's motion picture visual special effects company, with the hope of one day earning an Oscar for technical work on a motion picture. [3] His first major project was co-developing a computer program to generate water effects, which was first used for A Perfect Storm but also used in later films such as Pirates of the Caribbean. He later created programs for computational fluid dynamics and surface-cracking, which also became used in multiple projects.[4]
He first tried his hand at acting in 2000. He earned a Screen Actors Guild card by appearing in industry films, then moved to Los Angeles.[4] ILM stipulated in his contract that he could work at its Los Angeles branch, but would have to return to San Francisco if he did not get cast for a recurring role that season. Oka did get cast for a pilot. Although the show was not picked up, it did satisfy the contract's requirements and he was allowed to stay in Los Angeles. He decided to continue pursuing acting. He landed several guest spots and then a recurring role as Franklin on the NBC comedy Scrubs (TV series).
In 2006, Oka was cast for the role of Hiro Nakamura in
Heroes. Oka translates his dialogue from the show scripts from English to Japanese;
[5] English subtitles accompany his Japanese dialogue on the show. His portrayal of the role earned him a
Golden Globe Award nomination that year in the "Best Supporting Actor on a TV Series" category.
[6] In addition to his work on the show, he continues to work at ILM up to three days a week as a Research and Development Technical Director, writing programs that create special effects.
[3]
Filmography
As an actor
As a digital effects artist
In 2007 he announced an award with Hadyen Panettiere on the 20th annual Kids' Choice Awards.
References
- ^ a b "Heroes" Star: Former "Whiz Kid". TMZ.com (2006-11-27). Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Stewart, Susan (2006-12-04). A Surprise TV Star Embraces His Geeky Side. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ a b Shen, Maxine (2006-10-15). "Heroes". New York Post. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ a b Gaudiosi, John (2006-10-25). Masi Oka: Coder, Actor, Hero. Wired. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Keveney, Bill (2006-11-09). 'Heroes' star Masi Oka living the dream. USA Today. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Kuhn, Sarah (2007-02-09). Airborne at Last!. Back Stage. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
