Information about Masi Oka

Masi Oka
Birth name	Masayori Oka
Born	November 27 1974 (1974--) (age 34) Tokyo, Japan
Died
Other name(s)	Masi Oka
Awards

Masi Oka (Japanese: マシ・オカ, birth name: Masayori Oka (岡 政偉, Oka Masayori)), born December 27, 1974 is a Golden-Globe and Emmy-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 a role in Get Smart, which is scheduled to be released in 2008. He currently resides in California.

Biography

Early life

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Oka's parents divorced when he was one month old. His mother moved to Los Angeles, California, United States when he was six.^[1] He was raised in a single parent family, and has never met his father.<ref name="tavis" /> In 1987, a 10-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 was acquainted with the photographer who conducted the shoot.<ref name="Whiz" /> He has an IQ of 180.^[2] Ten years later, he graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics.

Career

Oka landed his first job after graduation at 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 . He later created programs for computational fluid dynamics and surface-cracking, which also became used in multiple projects.^[4] He has also worked on the Star Wars prequel trilogy.^[5]

Oka 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 Franklyn on the NBC comedy Scrubs. He was also featured in a PS2's Shinobi commercial, with the catch phrase 'Shinobi's Back'. Oka guest starred in the Yes, Dear episode Dances with Couch, aired April 8, 2002.

In 2006, Oka was cast for the role of Hiro Nakamura in Heroes. Oka translates his dialogue from the show's scripts from English to Japanese;^[6] English subtitles accompany his Japanese dialogue on the show. Many of his co-stars portraying Japanese characters speak with thick American accents. Additionally, Oka's real voice is closer to that of "Future Hiro" than the higher-pitched voice he uses as "Present Hiro" as heard during his appearances on television shows like Heroes.

His portrayal of the role earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination that year in the "Best Supporting Actor on a TV Series" category. ^[7] 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.<ref name="NYPost" /> He will play the role of Bruce in the big screen version of Get Smart.

He recently signed on to play a realtor who is trying to sell to Sean William Scott's character in Steve Conrad's Quebec. The film was originally slated to hit theatres in May 2007, but new scenes and characters have been added.

He was named the "Coolest Geek" at the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards on June 13, 2007.^[8] In 2007, he presented an award with costar Hayden Panettiere on the 20th annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.

Interests

Oka is fluent in Japanese, English and Spanish. His hobbies include kendo^[9] where he carries the rank of shodan,^[10] playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the piano, and singing. He avidly collects manga; his current favorites include Eyeshield 21, One Piece and PLUTO, and he professes to be a big fan of Naoki Urasawa's other works besides the latter^[11]. 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 was an officer of a guild in the past on the Spinebreaker realm.

Filmography

As an actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Dharma & Greg	Nien-Jen	Guest appearance
	Citizen Baines	Staffer Dan	Guest appearance
	Gilmore Girls	Philosophy Student	Guest appearance
2002	Yes, Dear	Talking Rock	Guest appearance
	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Male Council Member	Guest appearance
	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Japanese Pedestrian	His lines were a disclaimer about Godzilla
	She Spies	Guy	Guest appearance
	The Jamie Kennedy Experiment	Various	Recurring through 2003
	Scrubs	Franklyn	Recurring through 2004
2003	On the Spot	Japanese Tourist	Guest appearance
	Uh-Oh!	Asian Man
		Congressional Intern	Uncredited
	Luis	Deng Wu
2004	Along Came Polly	Wonsuk
	Still Standing	Ronald	Guest appearance
	All of Us	Edwin	Guest appearance
2005	Less Than Perfect	Hideki	Guest appearance
	Reno 911!	Translator	Guest appearance
	The Proud Family Movie	Japanese Kid/Announcer	Voice only
	House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim	Stanley Tong
	Joey S02E17	Arthur	Guest appearance
	God Wears My Underwear	Brother Eo	Voice only
	Punk'd	Translator	Guest appearance
2006	One Sung Hero	KJ
	Reba	Agent Phung	Guest appearance
	Without a Trace	Wei Fan	Guest appearance
	The Loop	Wang	Guest appearance
	''The Sarah Silverman Program Pilot	Clerk
	Heroes	Hiro Nakamura
	The Megan Mullally Show	Himself	Guest appearance
	Late Night With Conan O'Brien	Himself	Guest Appearance
2007	Balls of Fury	Jeff	Completed
	The Tonight Show	Himself	Guest Appearance
	Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	Himself	Guest Appearance
	Ellen Degeneres	Himself	Guest Appearance
	Reno 911!	Foreign Tourist	Guest Appearance
	Robot Chicken	Mr. Rogers	Guest Appearance
2008	21		Pre-Production
	Get Smart	Bruce

As a digital effects artist

Year	Title	Notes
1998	Mighty Joe Young	CG technical assistant: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)
1999		visual effects production and technical support: ILM
2000	The Perfect Storm	digital artist: ILM
2002		digital effects artist: ILM
2003	Hulk	technical director: ILM
		CG artist: ILM
2005		digital artist: ILM
	War of the Worlds	digital artist: ILM
2006		digital artist: ILM

References

External links

• Masi Oka at the Internet Movie Database
• LA Times Article
• Brown University "From Special Effects to Acting, CS Alum Masi Oka is One of the 'Heroes'"
• Brown Daily Herald by Alissa Cerny 9/18/06 "Brown alum snags big role in NBC series 'Heroes'"
• Time magazine cover - August 31, 1987 (Masi Oka is to the farthest left)
• Video of Masi Oka discussing his role on the hit TV series, Heroes, plus making special effects for the movie, Star Wars.

Persondata
NAME	Oka, Masi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Oka, Masayori (birth name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Japanese American actor, digital effects programmer
DATE OF BIRTH	December 27, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tokyo, Japan
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH