Daniel Dae Kim

2.1. Birth and childhood

Kim was born Kim Dae-hyun on August 4, 1968, in Busan, South Korea, to Jung Kim and Doo-tae Kim. When he was one year old, his family moved to the United States. He spent his early childhood growing up in various locations across Pennsylvania, including New York City, Easton, and Bethlehem. He completed his secondary education at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, situated in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

2.2. Education

In 1990, Kim graduated from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, earning double bachelor's degrees in theater and political science. During the spring semester of 1989, while attending Haverford, he also studied at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. He continued his academic pursuits, earning a MFA from New York University's Graduate Acting Program in 1996.

3.1. Early career and television appearances

After completing his education, Kim quickly established himself through numerous roles in a wide array of television programs. He appeared as a treasury agent in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and had guest roles in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Charmed, The Shield, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, and ER. He was a regular cast member on the short-lived Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade and held recurring roles on Angel and 24. Additionally, he portrayed Dr. Tsi Chou in a 2008 miniseries adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel The Andromeda Strain. His early film credits include a role as a Shaolin monk in American Shaolin (1992), which allowed him to demonstrate his skills in Tae Kwon Do.

3.2. Major role: Lost

From 2004 to 2010, Kim was a main cast member on the critically acclaimed ABC series Lost. He portrayed Jin-Soo Kwon, a character who transforms from a humble Korean fisherman into a hitman after crashing onto a mysterious island with his wife, Sun-Hwa Kwon (played by Yunjin Kim). This role presented a significant challenge for Kim, as it required him to speak exclusively in Korean, a language he had not used frequently since high school, prompting him to rapidly relearn it. He continued in the role until the series finale in 2010. During the show's run, Kim and his fellow cast members received widespread recognition, including a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble. Individually, he was 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. In 2005, People Magazine also named him one of its "Sexiest Men Alive."

3.3. Major television roles

Following his success on Lost, Kim took on several other prominent roles in television. In February 2010, shortly after Lost's conclusion, he was announced as a cast member for the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0. He played Chin Ho Kelly, a role famously originated by actor Kam Fong, and was the first actor to be officially cast in the series. The show premiered in September 2010 to strong ratings and positive critical reception.

Kim made his directorial debut with the Hawaii Five-0 season five episode titled "Kuka'awale". In late June 2017, prior to the eighth season, Kim, along with co-star Grace Park, departed from the show due to a salary dispute with CBS. Both actors had been seeking pay equality with their co-stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan, a demand CBS ultimately did not meet. This departure marked the first time since the reboot began that the show's main cast did not include any Asian actors, raising discussions about equitable representation in Hollywood.

In 2018, Kim joined The Good Doctor as an executive producer through his company, 3AD. He later took on an acting role in the series during its second season, portraying Dr. Jackson Han, the chief of surgery.

3.4. Film career

Kim's filmography includes a variety of roles across different genres. In addition to his early work in American Shaolin, he had a small part as Raymond, a scientist in Doctor Octopus' laboratory, in Spider-Man 2 (2004). He also appeared in the drama Crash (2004), which won the Best Picture Academy Award. Other minor film roles include The Jackal (1997), For Love of the Game (1999), Hulk (2003), and The Cave (2005).

He co-starred in The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) and The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), playing Jack Kang, the leader of the Candor faction. In 2019, Kim took on the role of Ben Daimio in the reboot film Hellboy. He replaced Ed Skrein in the role after Skrein stepped down to avoid a whitewashing controversy, as the character in the original comics was Asian-American. Kim also provided the voice of Chief Benja in the Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon, released in March 2021. His recent film roles include Brandon Choi in Always Be My Maybe (2019), Dr. Michael Onitsuka in Blast Beat (2020), David Kim in Stowaway (2021), and Dae Han in Joy Ride (2023).

3.5. Voice acting

Kim has an extensive career in voice acting for animation and video games. He is widely recognized as the voice of Johnny Gat in the Saints Row video game series, a role he originated in 2006. He also lent his voice to Metron in the final two episodes of Justice League Unlimited. In animated series, he voiced General Fong in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2006) and Hiroshi Sato in The Legend of Korra (2012-2014). More recently, his voice work includes the Great-Grandfather in Mirai (2018), King Micah in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2019-2020), Mr. Hong in The Casagrandes (2020-2021), David Kim in Pantheon (2022-2023), Bichan in Star Wars: Visions (2023), General Aiden Park in Mech Cadets (2023), and Masataka Ebina in the video game Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024). In 2024, he also took on the role of Fire Lord Ozai in the live-action Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

3.6. Stage career

Kim has a significant background in theater, with several notable stage performances. He played Paris in Romeo and Juliet in 1991 at the New Victory Theater and Torvald in A Doll's House for the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, also in 1991. Other early stage credits include Horace in School for Wives (1995) for the National Asian American Theatre Company, Bruce in The Chang Fragments (1996) at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, and Eng Tien-Bin in Golden Child (2000) for East West Players. In 2002, he took on the lead role of Prospero in The Tempest with the East West Players. He played Dr. Lvov in Ivanov (2005) for the National Asian American Theatre Company.

Kim gained particular recognition for his portrayal of the King of Siam in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical The King and I. He performed the role from June 12-28, 2009, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. He later made his Broadway debut in the same role, appearing in The King and I from May 3 to June 26, 2016, at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York. In August and September 2023, he portrayed Francis in the Los Angeles production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong. In 2024, he returned to Broadway to play David Henry Hwang (DHH) in Yellow Face at the Todd Haimes Theatre with the Roundabout Theatre Company.

3.7. Producing activities

Kim expanded his career into producing, establishing his film and television production company, 3AD. In January 2014, he signed a first-look development deal with CBS Television Studios, marking the first such deal with an Asian-American actor. 3AD is known for producing the ABC television series The Good Doctor, which is based on a 2013 South Korean series of the same name. Kim serves as an executive producer on The Good Doctor. In addition to this, he was also an executive producer for the film Blast Beat (2020) and is producing the upcoming series Butterfly.

6.1. Film

6.2. Television

6.3. Video games

6.4. Stage

6.5. Podcasts

6.6. Documentary