

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

John Yohan Cho (born 16 June 1972; age 48) is a Korean-American actor who portrays Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. Cho is best known for his roles as John in the American Pie films and as Harold in the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. He reprised the latter role in two sequels: Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay in 2008 and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas in 2011.

John Cho's stunt double in Star Trek was Lin Oeding. Even with the stunt double, however, Cho managed to sustain an arm injury during his final week of shooting in March 2008. [1] In 2009, Cho was part of the Star Trek ensemble which received a Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award nomination in the category Best Ensemble and won a Boston Society of Film Critics Award in the category Best Ensemble Cast. He shared these awards with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Leonard Nimoy, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Eric Bana, Clifton Collins, Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Jennifer Morrison, Chris Hemsworth, Winona Ryder, Faran Tahir, and Tyler Perry. In 2010, Cho was part of the ensemble which received a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nomination in the category Best Acting Ensemble for Star Trek.

In addition to his work on Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, Cho reprised his role and lent his voice to the video game Star Trek in 2013. Also in 2013, Cho and Joseph Gatt appeared as Hikaru Sulu and 0718 as part of the company General Electric's series of "Brilliant Machines" commercials, reprising their roles from Star Trek Into Darkness. [2] Cho is pictured on cards #58 "Combat Specialist H. Sulu" and #96 "Lieutenant H. Sulu" of the virtual collectible card battle game Star Trek: Rivals.

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Personal

Born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1972, Cho and his family immigrated to the United States in 1978. Cho graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and began appearing on television and in film in 1997.

Cho was selected as People Magazine's 11th sexiest man alive in 2006. In addition to acting, Cho is the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based rock band Viva La Union, formerly known as Left of Zed. Cho and his wife, Kerri Higuchi, have two children together: a boy, born in 2008, [3] and a girl, born in 2013. [4]

In 2016, he was the face of a social media campaign marked with the hashtag #StarringJohnCho to show the possibilities if Asian actors were cast in leading roles of big-budget films. [5] [6].

Career

Films

In addition to the Harold & Kumar films (the second of which featured Clyde Kusatsu as Harold's father) and the American Pie movies (the first of which also featured Clyde Kusatsu), Cho had supporting roles in such films as the 2001 comedy Down to Earth, the acclaimed 2002 drama Better Luck Tomorrow, and 2004's In Good Company. He also co-starred with Anton Yelchin in the 2001 comedy Delivering Milo; he and Yelchin worked together again in the Star Trek films, with Yelchin portraying Pavel Chekov.

Cho also had supporting roles in films like Wag the Dog (1997), Bowfinger (1999), American Beauty (1999, also featuring Scott Bakula), Evolution (2001, co-starring Miriam Flynn, Gregory Itzin, Michael McGrady, Jennifer Savidge, and Sarah Silverman), Solaris (2002), Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), and Saint John of Las Vegas (2009, also starring Silverman). Following his work on Star Trek, Cho appeared in the 2010 science fiction film Caller ID (with Ken Feinberg), the 2012 remake of Total Recall and the hit 2013 comedy Identity Thief (with Jonathan Banks). Further work includes the comedy Get a Job (2013), which co-stars Bruce Davison and Megan Gallagher, and the drama That Burning Feeling (2013).

American Pie franchise

Cho made a mark in the successful high school/college comedy film series as John, the student who popularized the term MILF. Cho worked with Lawrence Pressman in the first and third films in the series, American Pie (1999) and American Wedding (2003). Cho also worked with the aforementioned Clyde Kusatsu in the first American Pie, with Larry Drake in American Pie 2(2001), and with Loren Lester and Angela Paton in American Wedding. In 2012, Cho returned for American Reunion, which also featured Jay Harrington.

Television

One of Cho's earliest projects was The Tiger Woods Story, a 1998 television movie directed by LeVar Burton. That same year, Cho worked with J.J. Abrams for the first time on an episode of Felicity. He also guest starred in a 1998 episode of Charmed directed by the late Richard Compton. Cho's other early television credits include guest spots on The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1997, with Scarlett Pomers and Ann Cusack), V.I.P. (1998, with Alexander Enberg), and The Magnificent Seven (1999, with Brad Dourif, Andrew Kavovit, Tzi Ma, and Ron Perlman).

Cho had a voice-over role as Hirotaka on an episode of the Disney animated series Kim Possible; George Takei appeared in the same episode as "Sensei," the first of his several appearances on the series.

Cho starred as Chau Presly on the WB comedy series Off Centre, which aired from 2001 through 2002. He also had a recurring role on Kitchen Confidential, which ran for only four episodes on Fox in 2005 and featured Frank Langella. In 2005, he guest starred on the Fox medical drama House, M.D., on which his Star Trek co-star Jennifer Morrison was a regular. In the episode, entitled "Love Hurts", Cho played a sadomasochist patient whose lifestyle alienates his parents, played by Elizabeth Sang and DS9/ENT guest actor Keone Young. Matt Malloy also guest starred in the episode.

Cho's other television appearances include episodes of The Division (2003, with Irene Tsu), Grey's Anatomy (2006, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and How I Met Your Mother (2007, with Jim Jansen). He even lent his voice to four episodes of Seth MacFarlane's American Dad! (one in 2006, two in 2011, and one in 2013), which features the voices of Scott Grimes and Wendy Schaal. In 2007, he joined the cast of the hit series Ugly Betty in a recurring role as Kenny, the best friend of Star Trek: Hidden Evil voice actor Christopher Gorham's character. Tony Plana and Vanessa Williams were among the other performers who starred in this series.

Later, Cho starred as Agent Demetri Noh on ABC's science-fiction series FlashForward (with Peyton List), created by David Goyer and veteran Star Trek writer/producer Brannon Braga. The series was cancelled in 2010 after only one season. Cho then became a regular on the NBC sitcom Go On, but it was also cancelled after one season. Bill Cobbs had a recurring role on this series. Cho's other recent television roles include episodes of the Adult Swim comedies Childrens Hospital (2010, with Kurtwood Smith) and NTSF:SD:SUV:: (2011, with Kate Mulgrew). He also guest starred in the pilot episode and in six more season one and season two episodes of the Fox series Sleepy Hollow, which was co-created, co-written and executive produced by Star Trek writer-producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Clancy Brown and Elaine Nalee also appeared in this series.

Most recently, Cho starred in the Warner Bros. television comedy series Selfie along with Karen Gillan. The series was cancelled in late 2014 after one season. Joel Swetow, Shelly Desai, and Amanda Foreman guest starred on this series while Elle Alexander and Ilram Choi doubled the main actors.