Sung Kang

The part was written for a rapper's cameo in what was basically a straight-to-DVD release. Justin Lin had other plans. He'd already cast him as Han Lue in Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), an indie crime film with a predominantly Asian American cast that he co-produced and Lin later folded into Fast & Furious canon. When Lin took over Tokyo Drift in 2006, he brought Han along and rebuilt the role from a throwaway into the film's emotional center.

In a franchise where everyone competed to be the loudest person on screen, he played the guy eating chips in the corner. He wasn't the loudest, but he was the only one the audience actually missed when he was gone.

The fans brought him back from the dead. After Han died on screen in Tokyo Drift, the #JusticeForHan campaign pushed hard enough that Justin Lin wrote him into F9 (2021). He crossed into Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) as an Imperial Inquisitor, proving he could jump between billion-dollar franchises without breaking character.

The real pivot is behind the camera. He directed Shaky Shivers, a pandemic-shot horror comedy that won Best US Narrative Film at Gasparilla 2023. His second feature, Drifter, he wrote, directed, and stars in. He's been blunt about why: "Instead of waiting around for a phone call that maybe will never happen, I can create these opportunities for others."

The car thing isn't a hobby. It's a parallel career. His 1973 Datsun 240Z, the Fugu Z, won Best Asian Import and Best In Show at the 2015 SEMA show in Las Vegas. He built it in three months with GReddy and fans who donated parts through social media. He's said Paul Walker's death pushed him to stop waiting on things he cared about. The car ended up on Jay Leno's Garage.

He grew up Korean-American in Gainesville, Georgia, raised by his Korean mother and African American stepfather. He reportedly met his wife Miki Yim at a karaoke party in Koreatown in the early '90s. They didn't marry until 2014. Twenty years of dating before a wedding tells you something about his pace.