John Cho

Biography

John Cho (born June 16, 1972, in Seoul) is an American actor, born in South Korea and raised in the United States. He is best known for the American Pie films and for playing Hikaru Sulu in the rebooted Star Trek film series. Since the late 1990s he has worked across comedy, drama and genre films, and on television he has led series such as FlashForward and Selfie.

Cho was born in Seoul and moved to the United States with his family in 1978, when he was six. After living in several cities, the family settled in Los Angeles. His father, a minister in the Church of Christ, believed that to assimilate the two brothers should stop speaking Korean, so they watched as much American television as they could. Cho graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale in 1990 and earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996. While teaching English in West Hollywood, he acted at East West Players, a theatre company in Los Angeles.

His first screen work came in small guest roles, such as the 1998 episode "Dead Man Dating" of Charmed. In 1999 he played "MILF guy #2" in American Pie, a role he reprised in several sequels. He co-starred in the short-lived sitcom Off Centre (2001-2002) and had supporting parts in Ivan Reitman's Evolution and in Bowfinger. In 2002 he joined the ensemble of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, a drama about academically successful Asian American teenagers in Southern California who become discontented.

His breakthrough came with Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), in which he played Harold Lee, a role written for him by Hayden Schlossberg and revisited in two sequels. In 2009 he played Sulu in J. J. Abrams's Star Trek, and that same year he began FlashForward as FBI agent Demetri Noh. In 2014 he starred in Selfie, a modern retelling of Pygmalion, becoming the first Asian American man to play a romantic lead in a U.S. romantic comedy series. His acting is often described as subtle and understated.

In 2018 he starred in Searching, a thriller about a father searching social media for clues to his daughter's disappearance. He was the first Asian American actor to headline a mainstream Hollywood thriller, and the role earned him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award. In 2021 the live-action Cowboy Bebop arrived on Netflix with Cho as Spike Spiegel. He also wrote the middle-grade novel Troublemaker (2022). He remains active in film and television, and he is best remembered for Star Trek, American Pie, and his advancement of Asian American actors in leading roles.

Key films

• American Pie (1999): his role as "MILF guy #2" brought him wider recognition and became a fan favourite in the series.
• Better Luck Tomorrow (2002): an ensemble role in Justin Lin's debut, portraying academically successful but discontented Asian American youths.
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004): his starring role as Harold Lee, written for him, which launched a popular comedy franchise.
• Star Trek (2009): as Hikaru Sulu, a character from the original series who gained a new profile in J. J. Abrams's version.
• Searching (2018): the lead in a thriller that unfolds almost entirely on computer and phone screens.