Leonardo Nam (born November 5, 1979) is an Australian actor. He made his breakthrough as Roy in ''

The Perfect Score ''The Perfect Score'' is a 2004 American Teen film, teen comedy-heist film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Chris Evans (actor), Chris Evans, Erika Christensen, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, and Leonardo Nam. The film ...

'' (2004), and gained further recognition for his roles as Morimoto in '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006) and Brian McBrian in ''

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2'' is a 2008 American comedy-drama film and a sequel to the 2005 film ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants''. The original cast (Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel) return t ...

'' (2008). In 2016, Nam began starring as Felix Lutz in ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...

'' (2016–present) which brought him widespread recognition.

Early life

Nam was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Argentina, to South Korean immigrant parents. At the age of six, he moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. Nam attended

Sydney Technical High School Sydney Technical High School (STHS) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technic ...

and studied architecture at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. Nam left Sydney to follow his dreams of an acting career in New York City, United States, at the age of 19. He studied with several acting teachers in New York, namely

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

and William Carden at

HB Studio The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency progra ...

Career

Before his Hollywood success, Nam travelled to New York City to pursue his acting career. His first few nights he slept in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

and then found jobs working as a waiter and bartender. His breakthrough role came in his performance of Roy in ''

'' (2004). He had a small role in the 2005 film ''

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' is a series of five bestselling young adult novels by Ann Brashares: '' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001),'' ''The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003),'' '' Girls in Pants'' (2005), '' Fore ...

'' as Brian McBrian, a hardcore gamer. He played Brian again in ''

''; in the sequel, his character has a larger role. Nam also made an appearance in '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006) as Morimoto. In 2016, he joined the cast of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

''. In 2018 he was featured in the music video "

Waste It on Me "Waste It on Me" is a song by American musician and DJ Steve Aoki featuring South Korean boy band BTS (band), BTS, released on October 25, 2018. It follows Aoki and BTS' collaborations on the remix of "Mic Drop (song), Mic Drop" and "The Truth Unt ...

" by

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki (, ; born November 30, 1977), best known as Steve Aoki, is an American DJ, record producer, music programmer, and record executive.

featuring

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...

Personal life

Nam is married to Michael Dodge. They have twin sons (born 2017) together. The family lives in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

References

External links

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UGO Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nam, Leonardo 1979 births Argentine emigrants to Australia Argentine people of Korean descent Australian male film actors Australian people of Korean descent Australian expatriate male actors in the United States Australian gay actors Living people Male actors from Buenos Aires Male actors from Sydney University of New South Wales alumni People educated at Sydney Technical High School Male actors of Korean descent LGBT actors from Argentina Australian people of Asian descent