Actors to Watch

Rinko Kikuchi

A rising Japanese actress and starring in “Babel,” Rinko Kikuchi, known as Yuriko Kikuchi prior to May of 2004, was born on January 6th, 1981 in Kanagawa, Japan. Her debut was in 1999, when she appeared in a Japanese movie called, “Ikitai” (I Want to Live). She has mainly appeared in movies and commercials, including “Warau Michael”, “Nice No Mori ~The First Contact~”, and “69”.

In an interview Rinko had with Asian Source, she stated that the audition process for “Babel” actually took about a year. She attended a deaf-mute school and spent time with the students in order to master her acting skills as Chieko.

The actress states, “As for international productions, I'm not necessarily interested in them simply because they are ‘international,’ that's not so relevant for me. As long as there's a role that I can be passionate about, that I can be serious about and that I feel is worth investing myself in, I would take on any role from any country.”

Rinko’s name was not publicized as the actress playing Chieko’s role until Sports Nippon Newspaper announced it on May 23rd, 2006. Recently, the young Japanese star of "Babel" was named to Variety's "10 Actors to Watch" list. Her next appearance will be in a Japanese comedy with a title that Rinko roughly translates as “ A Bug is Not in the Dictionary.”

For more information about Rinko Kikuchi, go to: http://www.anore.co.jp/rinko/english.html

**Reference: Anore Co., 9/29/2006 Variety magazine, 10/25/2006 Asian Source.com

Masi Oka

The front cover of Entertainment Weekly in November displayed a gorgeous blond in a cheerleader costume, a typical white man in a business suit and for some odd reason… a geeky Japanese guy in a blue jacket and glasses? He is Masi Oka, the man credited by the magazine for making “his geeky, cherubic character into a fan favorite.”

Masi, formally Masayori, was born on December 27, 1974 in Tokyo, Japan and moved to Los Angeles at the age of six. He graduated from Harvard-Westlake High School in 1992 and from Brown University in 1997 as a Computer Science major. He is fluent in Japanese and English and is also proficient in Spanish. His hobbies include kendo (Japanese fencing), playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the piano, and singing.

At the G4tv interview, according to Wikipedia.com, he has stated that he has played World of Warcraft extensively and ran a guild in the past on the Spinebreaker realm. In an interview with Ellen Degenerous, his cast members said he had an IQ of 180. In 1987, although he was not featured in the article itself, Masi was on the cover of Time Magazine titled, “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids”.

So far he may sound like a typical geek who has a very high IQ. However, he is now the most popular character on the television show that was reported on Entertainment Weekly as the highest rated TV show this season. And now only that, he is also the writer of many programs that made the special effects in many well-known Hollywood movies possible.

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 is also filming his new movie “Balls of Fury”, which is scheduled to be released in 2007. As for his programming success, according to TMZ.com, “Masi worked for George Lucas’ special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, toiling on special effects for films like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead man’s Chest,’ ‘War of the Worlds’ and the three ‘Star Wars’ prequels. Oka says he still works for the company a couple of days a week.”

Masi has proved the stereotypes of Hollywood actors wrong. An actor’s success does not only come from beauty and networking skills. Knowledge also plays an important role.

**Reference: Wikipedia.org, 11/2/2006 Entertainment Weekly