Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor.
Kim is best known for his roles as Jin-Soo Kwon in Lost, Chin Ho Kelly in Hawaii Five-0,
and Johnny Gat in the Saints Row series of video games.
He also played a recurring role on Angel.
Early life Kim was born in Busan, South Korea, and moved
to the United States with his family when he was two years old.
He is now a naturalized citizen of the United States.
He grew up in Lehigh Valley, Easton, Pennsylvania.
He is a graduate of Freedom High School and Haverford College.
His theater major was completed at Bryn Mawr College.
He graduated from NYU's Graduate Acting Program in 1996.
Career
After graduation, Kim made a name for himself playing numerous roles in a wide variety of
television programs.
He appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a treasury agent as well as episodes of
Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Charmed, The Shield, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue and
ER.
He landed recurring roles on Angel, 24 and the short-lived Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade.
He also portrayed Dr. Tsi Chou in a 2008 miniseries based on the acclaimed Michael Crichton novel
The Andromeda Strain.
His film credits include a small part in Spider-Man 2 as a scientist working in Doctor Octavius'
laboratory and Crash, the 2005 Best Picture Academy Award winner.
He also had minor roles in films such as The Jackal, For Love of the Game, Hulk and The
Cave.
From 2004 to 2010, Kim served as a regular cast member on the massively successful ABC
series Lost in which he played Jin-Soo Kwon, a lowly Korean fisherman-turned-hitman who
crashes onto a mysterious island with his wife, Sun-Hwa Kwon.
Since the role required him to speak exclusively in Korean, Kim said he was forced to quickly
relearn the language, which he had not spoken with any great frequency since high school.
He would go on to play the character up until the 2010 series finale.
Throughout the show’s run, Kim, along with his fellow cast members, received numerous
accolades, including a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble.
Kim was individually honored with an AZN Asian Excellence Award, a Multicultural Prism Award
and a Vanguard Award from the Korean American Coalition, all for Outstanding Performance
by an Actor.
Kim was also named one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" in 2005.
In February 2010, shortly after Lost's conclusion, it was announced that Kim would join the CBS
reboot Hawaii Five-0 playing Chin Ho Kelly, the role originally made famous by actor Kam
Fong.
Kim was the first actor to be officially cast on the show.
That series premiered on September 20, 2010 to strong ratings and solid critical acclaim.
On March 13, 2014, CBS renewed the series for a fifth season.
On June 5, 2014, it was announced that Kim will be joining the cast of The Divergent
Series: Insurgent, the sequel to 2014's Divergent.
He will be playing Jack Kang, the leader of the Candor faction.
Other Projects Kim is the voice of the character Johnny Gat
for THQ's Saints Row video game series.
He also contributed his vocal likeness for 24: The Game in which he played his character
from the show, Tom Baker.
He provided the voice for Metron in the final two episodes of Justice League Unlimited.
In a return to his theater roots, Kim played the King of Siam in Rodgers & Hammerstein's
The King and I from June 12–28, 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
In January 2014, Kim signed with South Korean talent agency SidusHQ.
He is currently repped in America by Agency for the Performing Arts and Anonymous Content
3AD Recently, Kim has expanded his career to include
producing.
In January 2014, he signed a first look development deal with CBS Television Studios, the first
of its kind with an Asian American actor.
With his new production company, 3AD, he and his team are currently creating original content
for both television and film.
Personal life Though Kim continues to split his time between
Los Angeles and New York, he spends the majority of his year in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he
lives with his wife and children.
After first moving to Hawaii during the later seasons of Lost, Kim continued his residency
after being cast in Hawaii Five-0.
On May 17, 2014, he served as a speaker at the 2014 University of Hawaii commencement
ceremony.
Besides acting, Kim has devoted much of his time to various charities.
More recently, he served as Cultural Envoy and Member of the U.S. Presidential Delegation
for the United States at the World Expo in Korea.
Filmography References
External links Daniel Dae Kim at the Internet Movie Database
Daniel Dae Kim interview with Patrol magazine