About John Cho

Dynamic actor and New York Times best-selling author, John Cho’s esteemed career has spanned over two decades. Cho has continued to deliver compelling performances in both film and television, positioning him as one of the first Korean-American actors in the mainstream to breakthrough business and cultural barriers.

Cho’s debut middle-grade book, Troublemaker, was released on March 22, 2022. Troublemaker landed on both The New York Times and IndieBound bestseller lists in its first week. Troublemaker is a galvanizing middle-grade offering that follows the L.A. riots in 1992 through the eyes of 12-year-old Korean American Jordan Park, whose parents own a liquor store. When Jordan’s father leaves to check on the store amid mounting unrest, Jordan and his friends set out on a perilous journey to help his dad, and Jordan is forced to face the racism plaguing his own community.

Cho recently starred in the Amazon Studios’ father-daughter dramedy, Don’t Make Me Go. The story follows a single father (Cho) who has discovered he has a fatal brain tumor and decides to take his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother, as he attempts to teach her everything she may need to know over the rest of her life.

Recently, Cho executive produced Erick Oh’s animated short film Namoo. “Namoo” — which translates in Korean to “tree” — is a hand-painted narrative poem inspired by the passing of Oh’s grandfather. The short follows the beautiful and heartbreaking moments of a man’s life, from beginning to end. Namoo appeared on the 2022 Oscar’s Short List and was nominated for Best Special Production and Best Character Animation - TV/Media for the Annie Awards 2021.

Cho starred in the live-action Netflix series Cowboy Bebop, based on the worldwide phenomenon from the original Japanese animated series in 1997. The show follows “Spike Spiegel” (Cho) and a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters hired to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals while fleeing from their own complicated histories. The series also starred Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda, and Alex Hassell.

On the big screen, Cho starred in Aneesh Chaganty’s film Searching, which garnered him an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of “Best Male Lead.” The film was named one of the National Board of Review’s top 10 independent films of 2018. Searching is a tense, emotional thriller told via technology devices that we use every day to communicate. The

film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, winning two awards, and several outlets singled out Cho’s performance as one of the best of the festival. Cho was also seen starring in Kogonada’s Columbus, opposite Haley Lu Richardson. Variety raved about Cho’s performance and his “untapped ability as a captivatingly sincere leading man,” – and the film was nominated for four Gotham Awards and three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature.

Cho previously lent his voice to the father in the Oscar-nominated Mirai and in the Sony Pictures Animation titled Wish Dragon alongside Jackie Chan and Constance Wu. The film was nominated for an Annie Award in the category of “Best Character Animation - Feature.”

Cho first came into the spotlight in the 1999 hit comedy American Pie and the sequel, American Reunion. He starred as ‘Harold Lee’ opposite Kal Penn in the cult comedies Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, and A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas. Cho went on to star in the iconic role of ‘Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu’ in the motion picture reboots of the legendary Star Trek franchise, appearing in all three films – Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness for J.J. Abrams and Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin.

Additional film credits include Sony’s The Grudge opposite Demian Bichir and Andrea Riseborough; the recent Hollywood-set noir, Gemini, opposite Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz; The Oath, written and directed by Ike Barinholtz; Seth Gordon’s Identity Theft opposite Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman; Ryan Eggold’s Literally, Right Before Aaron, Len Wiseman’s remake of the classic, Total Recall; Mora Stephens’ Zipper; Paul Weitz’ Grandma and American Dreamz; Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow; Ho Yim’s Pavilion of Women; Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris; and the Best Picture Oscar® winner, American Beauty.

On television, Cho was recently seen in the CBS All Access reboot of The Twilight Zone, in which he starred opposite of Allison Tolman and Jacob Tremblay for one episode. Additional credits include the leading role in FOX’s The Exorcist, the ABC comedy Selfie opposite Karen Gillan, FOX’s Sleepy Hollow, NBC’s comedy Go On, and ABC’s drama series Flash Forward; the Weitz Bros’ Off Centre, and FOX’s Kitchen Confidential.

Born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in Los Angeles, California, Cho began acting while studying English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He toured the country with his first show, The Woman Warrior, an adaptation

of the renowned memoir by Maxine Kingston. Other stage roles include ‘Laertes’ in the Singapore Repertory Theater’s production of Hamlet and a variety of shows for East West Players.