Tom T. Choi (born in

Daegu, South Korea Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

) is a Korean-American actor best known for ''

Teen Wolf ''Teen Wolf'' is a 1985 American coming-of-age romantic fantasy comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is chang ...

'' and his voice work on the '' Mortal Kombat'' video games and the first season of ''

Squid Game ''Squid Game'' () is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-r ...

''. He has acted in numerous movies and television programs. Choi is also a producer, director, and writer. Tom Choi wrote the screenplay and starred in the award-winning short film: Lone Hunter.

Early life

Choi was born in Daegu, South Korea and moved to

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

when he was four years old. After graduating high school, Choi moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington, where he graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

with a bachelor's degree in Drama. He then moved to Los Angeles and continued acting in film, television, and commercials. He attended the LACC School of Cinema and Television and now produces, directs, and writes in addition to acting.

Career

Choi began working in film and television in 1998. He has made appearances in multiple blockbuster films and network television shows, and is best known for his roles as Ken Yukimura in ''

'' and

Liu Kang Liu Kang is a fictional character in the ''Mortal Kombat'' fighting game series by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Depicted as Earthrealm's greatest warrior and champion, he is generally the main hero of the series. He debuted in the ori ...

in the '' Mortal Kombat'' series. He runs the independent production company Tension Films and was elected in 2015 and 2017 as a board member for the Los Angeles local of

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recordi ...

, the union's largest local.

As a filmmaker and writer

He made a short film called Singularity in 2016. Choi has claimed there are not many film and television roles for Asian Americans. Tom Choi wrote the screenplay for Lone Hunter, and then starred in the short film. Choi also has a web site called Tension Films to feature his work as a filmmaker and writer.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards

In 2015, Choi was nominated for Best Actor at the

Maverick Movie Awards The Maverick Movie Awards annually honors films and screenplays. They were founded as the New Haven Underground Film Festival in 2004, and became known as ''Maverick Movie Awards'' in 2008. The awards are given out by a panel of judges working i ...

for the Tension Films short film Lone Hunter. In 2017, he was nominated for Best Actor and won the Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Milledgeville Film Festival for Lone Hunter, shared with John Heinsen and Pascal Leister. In 2016, he received an Honorable Mention at Justin Lin's Interpretations Short Films Initiative in the

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

Short Film Festival for Singularity. Choi both directed the film and played the leading role.

References

External links

*
Tension Films Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choi, Tom American male film actors American male television actors American male video game actors American male voice actors American male actors of Korean descent Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors People from Daegu