John Cho

John Cho (born Cho Yo Han; June 16, 1972)[1] is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek reboot film series.[2]

John Cho
Cho in 2008
Born	Cho Yo Han (1972-06-16) June 16, 1972 Seoul, South Korea
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1997–present
Spouse(s)	Kerri Higuchi ( m. 2006)
Children	2
Korean name
Hangul	조요한
Revised Romanization	Jo Yo(-)han
McCune–Reischauer	Cho Yohan

Early in his career, Cho also starred in the Asian American-centered films Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), Shopping for Fangs (1997), and Yellow (1998). In 2017, he received critical acclaim for his performance in the hit indie film Columbus. In 2018, he starred in the thriller film Searching, making him the first Asian-American actor in history to headline a mainstream thriller film in Hollywood. He also made history in American television as the first Asian American actor cast as a romantic lead when he starred as Henry Higgs in the 2014 sitcom Selfie. In addition to his role in Selfie, Cho has had lead roles in series such as FlashForward and Off Centre, and recurring roles in Sleepy Hollow and Difficult People.

Early life

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Cho moved to the United States in 1978.[3] He was raised in Los Angeles, where his family settled after living in Houston, Seattle, Daly City, California and Monterey Park, California.[4][5] His father was a minister in the Church of Christ and was originally from North Korea.[4][5][6] Cho graduated from Herbert Hoover High School, in Glendale, California, in 1990.[5][7]

Cho attended the University of California, Berkeley. In 1994, he toured nationally for a stage production of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He graduated in 1996 with a BA degree in English.[5][8][9]

Career

After graduation, Cho taught English at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood, California, while acting at East West Players in downtown Los Angeles.[4][5] There, he appeared in Edward Sakamoto's The Taste of Kona Coffee in 1996 and in Euijoon Kim's movie My Tired Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk in 2000.[10]

Cho gained attention with a small role as "MILF Guy #2" in the 1999 comedy American Pie, in which he popularized the slang term MILF.[5] Cho reprised the role in three sequels: American Pie 2, American Wedding, and the latest installment American Reunion in which he has a much larger role. His character initially had no name but he was given the name "John" in the third film, named after Cho himself.

Cho guest-starred on Charmed as a ghost in 1998 and was one of the stars of the short-lived situation comedy Off Centre in 2001–2002. He was a costar on the Fox sitcom Kitchen Confidential based on Anthony Bourdain's best-selling book. He had supporting roles in the sci-fi comedy Evolution directed by Ivan Reitman, Down to Earth starring Chris Rock, and Bowfinger with Steve Martin.

In 2002, Cho had a starring role in the ensemble cast of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, a drama focusing on the travails of a group of Asian Americans living in Southern California who are academically successful but socially discontented, and as a result engage in wantonly violent, criminal behavior. It was well received by critics, with Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times describing Cho's character's "lazy magnetism of which he is charmingly aware."[11] Later that year, the movie Big Fat Liar was released, in which Cho played a Hong Kong-based movie director. He refused to do the accent scripted for his character. The director worked with him to re-develop the role.[12]

Cho had a successful starring role as Harold Lee in 2004's Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and reprised the role in 2008's Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay which raked in $38 million at the theaters,[13] and again in 2011's A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas which made $35 million.[14] Cho's role in the popular franchise was written specifically for him by Hayden Schlossberg, and Cho has recounted that when Schlossberg first approached him with the role, he was initially suspicious.[4]

Cho appeared on July 2004 issue of KoreAm Journal and in September 2006 was cast in NBC's new comedy The Singles Table, but the series never aired due to changes in scheduling and production. In 2006 and again in 2009,[15] Cho was selected as one of the sexiest men alive in People magazine.

Cho, right, promoting The Exorcist at the 2017 New York Comic Con. Beside him are his co-stars (left to right) Ben Daniels, Zuleikha Robinson, and Kurt Egyiawan.

In 2007, Cho was added to the cast of Ugly Betty as a recurring character. Cho plays Kenny, a best friend of accountant Henry Grubstick (played by Christopher Gorham). Cho played helmsman Hikaru Sulu in J. J. Abrams's feature film Star Trek.[16][17] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised him, along with Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, and Zachary Quinto, for making their roles "ultimately and rather wonderfully their own".[18]

Cho appeared in Nas's "Be a Nigger Too" music video along with various celebrities, and had a guest appearance on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in the episode "I'm Not That Guy" where he played a partner in an evil law firm. Of the latter, Staci Krause of IGN, wrote that Cho was "the scene stealer in this episode" and that she would "definitely like to see more of him" in the series.[19]

From 2009 to 2010, Cho starred in the television series FlashForward as FBI Special Agent Demetri Noh.[20] His character was originally slated to be killed off during what turned out to be the show's only season, but after his turn as Sulu in Star Trek boosted his popularity, the producers revised the show's storyline so that he survived, in an attempt to boost declining ratings.[21]

Cho starred as Henry Higgs in the short-lived sitcom Selfie, a retooling of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw,[22][23] becoming the first Asian American to play a romantic lead on a U.S. television series.

In 2018, Cho starred in the film Searching, playing a man combing social media for clues to his daughter's disappearance. He was the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream thriller in Hollywood.[24] Also in 2018, he was presented with the Spotlight Award at the San Diego International Film Festival.[25]

In April 2019, Variety reported that Cho had been cast as Spike Spiegel in a live-action version of the Cowboy Bebop series.[26] However, production shut down when Cho suffered a knee injury in October and is not scheduled to restart until May 2020 at the earliest.[27]

Musical career

Cho is the lead singer for Viva La Union (formerly known as Left of Zed),[28] a Los Angeles garage rock band composed of former Berkeley and USC students. They have one album, self-titled, while their song "Chinese Baby" is featured on the Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay soundtrack.

Personal life

Cho married actress Kerri Higuchi in 2006. They have a son, born in 2008,[29] and a daughter, born in 2013.[30] As of 2015, he and his family reside in Los Angeles, California.[31] He is close to his father, a former preacher, and would like to play a role in the story of his father's generation, growing up in North Korea through the Korean War.[32]

Cho has indicated he has found freedom in being Harold in the Harold and Kumar films because the stoner character goes against the grain of Asian Americans onscreen.[32] He has said he has experienced racism throughout his career in Hollywood and that he tries to take roles that do not perpetuate Asian stereotypes.[33] When asked to do an Asian accent for Big Fat Liar, Cho refused. "I don't want to do this role in a kid's comedy, with an accent, because I don't want young people laughing at an accent inadvertently", he wrote.[34] In a 2015 tweet he said, "Stop turning Asian roles white. It's bullshit and we all know it."[35] On being the first Asian to play a romantic lead on a U.S. television series, he described it as being "revolutionary" and a "personal revolution" for him because of its uniqueness in Hollywood. "Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop, or waitress, or whatever it is. You see them in the background. So to be in this position ... is bit of a landmark," he has said on the inability of Asians getting offered such roles.[36][37]

In 2016, Cho was the face of the "Starring John Cho" social movement and hashtag campaign, wherein Cho is edited onto existing movie posters as the male lead.[3]

Cho supported the 2012 re-election campaign of Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama.[38]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Shopping for Fangs	Clarence
	Wag the Dog	Aide #3
1998	Yellow	Joey
1999	American Beauty	Sale house man #1
	American Pie	MILF guy #2
	Bowfinger	Nightclub cleaner
2000	The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas	Parking valet
2001	American Pie 2	John (MILF guy #2)
	Delivering Milo	Mr. Hugo
	Down to Earth	Phil Quon
	Evolution	Student
	Pavilion of Women	Fengmo Wu
2002	Better Luck Tomorrow	Steve Choe
	Big Fat Liar	Dustin Wong
	Solaris	DBA emissary #1
2003	American Wedding	John
2004	Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle	Harold Lee
	In Good Company	Petey
	See This Movie	Larry Finkelstein
2005	American Dreamz	Frank Ittles
	Bam Bam and Celeste	Stephan
2006	Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas	Tom
2007	West 32nd	John Kim
2008	Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	Harold Lee
	Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam	Harold Lee	Short film
	Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist	Hype Man
	Smiley Face	Mike
2009	Saint John of Las Vegas	Carnival Human Torch
	Star Trek	Hikaru Sulu	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2011	A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas	Harold Lee
2012	American Reunion	John
	Total Recall	Bob McClane
2013	Identity Thief	Daniel Casey
	Star Trek Into Darkness	Hikaru Sulu
	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	Middle Counselor Isonokami (voice)	English dub
2015	Grandma	Chau
	Zipper	EJ
2016	Get a Job	Brian Bender
	Star Trek Beyond	Hikaru Sulu
2017	Columbus	Jin Lee
	Gemini	Edward Ahn
	A Happening of Monumental Proportions	Mr. Ramirez
	Literally, Right Before Aaron	Mark
2018	The Oath	Agent Peter Barber
	Mirai	Mr. Ota (voice)	English dub
	Searching	David Kim
2019	Between Two Ferns: The Movie	Himself
2020	The Grudge	Peter Spencer
	Tigertail	Grover	Scenes cut; also executive producer[39]
	Over the Moon	(voice)	In production
2021	Wish Dragon[40]	(voice)	In production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	The Jeff Foxworthy Show	Pizza Delivery Man	Episode: "Twister of Fate"
1998	Felicity	Larry	Episode: "The Last Stand"
1998	Charmed	Mark Chao	Episode: "Dead Man Dating"
2001	Static Shock	Thomas Kim / Tantrum, Navigator (voices)	2 episodes
2001–2002	Off Centre	Chau Presley	Main role
2002	The Jamie Kennedy Experiment	Himself	1 episode
2003	Kim Possible	Hirotaka (voice)	Episode: "Exchange"
2005	The Men's Room	Bob	4 episodes
2005	House M.D.	Harvey Park	Episode: "Love Hurts"
2005–2006	Kitchen Confidential	Teddy Wong	Recurring role
2006	Grey's Anatomy	Marshall Stone	Episode: "Damage Case"
2006–2013	American Dad!	Vince Chung (voice)	4 episodes
2007	How I Met Your Mother	Jefferson Coatsworth	Episode: "I'm Not That Guy"
2007	Ugly Betty	Kenny	3 episodes
2007	'Til Death	Lucas Bender	Episode: "Come Out and Play"
2008	Hollywood Residential	Himself	Episode: "It Happens"
2009–2010	FlashForward	Demetri Noh	Main role
2010	Childrens Hospital	Park	Episode: "Frankfurters. Allman Brothers. Death. Frankfurters"
2011	30 Rock	Lorne	Episode: "Double-Edged Sword"
2011	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Chip	Episode: "The Birthday Part That Was Neither"
2012–2013	Go On	Steven	Main role
2013–2014	Sleepy Hollow	Andy Brooks	7 episodes
2014	Selfie	Henry Higgs	Main role
2015	BoJack Horseman	Lead Improv-er (voice)	2 episodes
2015	The Mindy Project	Big Murder	Episode: "Lahiri Family Values"
2016	New Girl	Daniel	Episode: "Jury Duty"
2016	House of Lies	Sean Chew	Episode: "Holacracy"
2016	Drunk History	William Shakespeare	Episode: "Landmarks"
2016	Lip Sync Battle	Himself	Episode: "Ben Kingsley vs. John Cho"
2016	The Hindenburg Explodes!	Reggie	Pilot
2017	Difficult People	Todd Ross	4 episodes
2017	The Exorcist	Andrew Kim	Main role (season 2)
2017	Do You Want To See a Dead Body?	Himself	Episode: "A Body and Some Quicksand"
2019	The Twilight Zone	Raff Hanks	Episode: "The Wunderkind"[41]

Stage/Theater

Year	Title
1996	The Taste of Kono Coffee
1997	F.O.B.
2000	My Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk

Web series

Year	Title	Role
2015	Parallel Man: Infinite Pursuit	Agent Nick Morgan (voice)

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2013	Star Trek	Hikaru Sulu	Also likeness

References

1. "John Cho Biography". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
2. Chi, Paul (July 26, 2018). "Two Years After #StarringJohnCho, John Cho Is Finally a Leading Man". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
3. Falcone, Dana Rose (December 20, 2017). "John Cho Thinks His Immigration Story Makes Him a True Citizen". TIME.com. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
4. Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, Hulu.com and Ustream, episode 96
5. Wang, Oliver (July 3, 2009). "The Game-Changer: An Interview with John Cho". Asia Pacific Arts (UCLA Asia Institute). Archived from the original on January 21, 2014.
6. "What to watch". AOL.com. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
7. Buchanan, Jason (2005-03-12). "John Cho". The New York Times.
8. Hartlaub, Peter (2008-04-23). "John Cho rises to the top, with Harold's help". SFGate. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
9. Varian, Maya Felipa (2016-10-11). "John Cho". Cal Reunions. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
10. EWP 34th Season Archived 2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine on East West Players site
11. Mitchell, Elvis (2003-04-11). "Film Review; Teenages Determined to Damage Their Resumes". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
12. Sullivan, Gail (October 9, 2014), "John Cho of 'Selfie': 'I experienced racism'". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
13. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay". boxofficemojo.com.
14. "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas". boxofficemojo.com.
15. People Magazine Sexiest Men Alive 2009
16. Kit, Borys (2007-10-12). "Final frontier for Cho, Pegg". The Hollywood Reporter.
17. "John Cho: 'Trek' role is 'daunting'". CNN. Associated Press. 2008-03-12.
18. Dargis, Manohla (7 May 2009). "Movie Review: 'Star Trek'". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 Aug 2012.
19. "How I Met Your Mother: 'I'm Not That Guy' Review". IGN. 2007-10-30.
20. Eng, Joyce (2009-05-19). "Fall TV: ABC's Official Schedule Revisits V, Moves Betty and Says Adieu to Who?". TV Guide.
21. Keck, William (June 18, 2010). "Keck's Exclusives: Gabrielle Union FlashForwards to New Series". TV Guide. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
22. Doll, Jen (October 20, 2014), "YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION." Business Week. (4399):70
23. "Was 2014 A Banner Year for Asian Americans on Television?". NBC News. December 27, 2014. Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
24. General, Ryan (2018-07-25). "John Cho Makes History as the First Asian Actor Leading a Hollywood Thriller in 'Searching'". Nextshark.com. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
25. "Night Of The Stars Tribute | San Diego International Film Festival". 2019-04-03. Archived from the original on 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
26. Otterson, Joe (April 4, 2019). "Cowboy Bebop: John Cho, Mustafa Shakir Among Four Cast in Netflix Live-Action Series". Variety. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
27. Andreeva, Nellie (October 18, 2019). "Cowboy Bebop: Netflix Series Shuts Down Production For 7-9 Months Following Star John Cho On-Set Injury". Deadline. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
28. Wang, Oliver (2009-07-03). "Asia Pacific Arts: The Game-Changer: An Interview with John Cho (part 2)". Asia Pacific Arts. Archived from the original on 2009-07-09. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
29. "John Cho and wife Kerri expecting first child". People. April 13, 2008. Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
30. "John Cho and wife Kerri have second child". People. February 11, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
31. "John Cho". TV.com. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
32. "John Cho On Playing The Asian-American Stoner Stereotype". Larry King Now.
33. "In 'Selfie', John Cho Gets An Unlikely Shot As A Romantic Lead". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
34. Sullivan, Gail (2014-10-09). "John Cho of 'Selfie': 'I experienced racism'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
35. Cho, John (verified account) [@JohnTheCho] (March 24, 2015). "Stop turning Asian roles white" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2015 – via Twitter.
36. "Will John Cho Be Television's First Asian Romantic Lead?". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
37. Wong, Tony (2014-07-16). ""Asians narratively in shows are insignificant," says John Cho, the romantic lead in the fall series Selfie. "So to be in this position ... is a bit of a landmark."". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
38. (2011-07-16) "Hollywood stars open wallets for Obama". Retrieved 2011-07-16.
39. Jung, E. Alex (March 26, 2020). "Alan Yang's Tigertail Is a 'Fever Dream' of His Father's Immigration Story". New York. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
40. Jackie Chan, China's BaseFX Making 'Wish Dragon' for Sony Animation
41. Petski, Denise (December 3, 2018). "'The Twilight Zone': John Cho, Allison Tolman & Jacob Tremblay To Star In Episode Of CBS All Access Reboot". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 3, 2018.

External links

• John Cho on IMDb 
• John Cho at AllMovie
• John Cho at the TCM Movie Database
• John Cho on Twitter