Rise to Fame
Most actors moonlight as bartenders or ride-share drivers while waiting for their break. He moonlighted as an R&D Technical Director at Industrial Light & Magic, writing fluid dynamics code for The Perfect Storm (2000). When Heroes cast him as Hiro Nakamura in 2006, he kept both jobs simultaneously. He personally translated his English dialogue into Japanese for every scene, and ended Season 1 as the only cast member nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
In the Spotlight
Heroes made him famous, but the decade after was quieter. Hawaii Five-0 gave him 135 episodes as a medical examiner, and then he mostly stepped back from acting. The harder turn was into producing. His company executive produced Outer Wilds (2019), an indie exploration game that won the BAFTA for Best Game and generated serious critical discussion for years. He's now voice acting in Netflix's Blue Eye Samurai and executive producing a live-action Claymore adaptation. A BAFTA-winning game is a stronger legacy than most of his Heroes co-stars are sitting on.
Side Notes
At 12, he was on the cover of Time magazine, featured in a 1987 spread on high-achieving Asian-American kids that drew criticism for amplifying the model minority stereotype. He graduated Brown in CS and math, turned down a Microsoft offer, and took his first job at ILM, which says something about his priorities. He also holds a kendo black belt, was music director for a collegiate a cappella group, and reportedly has an IQ above 180, though that number circulates far more than it gets independently verified. The Time cover photo might be the most accurate portrait of what he actually is.