Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Biography

is a Japanese-American actor, sports physiologist, martial artist, and stuntman, who holds Russian citizenship.

He has appeared on television in Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Encounter at Farpoint"; 1987), Thunder in Paradise (1995), Nash Bridges (1996), Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), and Heroes (2007). He provided the voice of Sin Tzu for the video game Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. He played the part of Earth Alliance security officer Morishi in Babylon 5 ("Convictions"). He played the evil soul-stealing sorcerer Shang Tsung in a film adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat, a role he would reprise 18 years later for Mortal Kombat Legacy. He played the evil mastermind Heihachi Mishima in the film adaptation of Tekken. He also featured as Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle, the Amazon original series adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick.

Early life

Tagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, the son of a Japanese actress and a Japanese-American father who served in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Fort Hood, Texas. His mother tongues are English and Japanese and he is also fluent in Korean and Spanish.

He was raised in various cities. He and his family finally settled in Southern California, where he began acting in high school while attending Duarte High School. He attended the University of Southern California, and was an exchange student in Japan.

Career

His breakthrough as an actor came when he was cast as the Eunuch Chang in The Last Emperor (1987). In 1989, he played an undercover agent of the Hong Kong Narcotics Board in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. In 1991, he starred alongside Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee in the action film Showdown in Little Tokyo, where he played the role of Yakuza boss Yoshida. He also starred alongside James Hong and Jeff Speakman in the same year in the film The Perfect Weapon, where he played Kai, an assistant to the Korean mafia families.

He appeared in the movie Mortal Kombat (1995) as the shapeshifting sorcerer Shang Tsung, and as the deadly pirate leader Kabai Sengh in The Phantom (1996). Tagawa is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in the documentary The Slanted Screen (2006), directed by Jeff Adachi, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood.

Tagawa played Heihachi Mishima in Tekken, the film adaptation of the video game franchise. In 2006, he provided the voice of Brushogun in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. He was in the film Johnny Tsunami (1999) and its sequel Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007). In between those two films, Tagawa played Attar's mentor Krull in Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes (2001).

Tagawa reprised his role as Shang Tsung for the second season of the YouTube series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. This new version of the character was unrelated to Tagawa's previous work as Tsung.

He played Satoshi Takeda in Revenge, a powerful CEO in Japan and Emily Thorne's former mentor in her quest for revenge. In season 2, Tagawa took over the role from Hiroyuki Sanada, who was unable to continue due to scheduling conflicts.

In 2015, Tagawa was cast as one of the lead characters, Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America in Amazon's The Man in the High Castle. Also in November 2015, both he and Taimak (The Last Dragon) were honorees for the Fists of Legends Legacy Award at the Urban Action Showcase & Expo.

Personal life

In 2013, Tagawa started working with Orthodox Christian actors Pyotr Mamonov and Ivan Okhlobystin. On November 12, 2015, he was baptized as Panteleymon in the Russian Orthodox Joy of All Who Sorrow church in Moscow. In March 2016, he received Russian citizenship.

Filmography and stunts

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Armed Response	Toshi
1987	The Last Emperor	Chang
1988	Bulletproof	Thug in Flashback	Uncredited
1988	Spellbinder	Lt. Lee
1988	Twins	Oriental Man
1989	Licence to Kill	Kwang
1989	L.A. Takedown	Hugh Denny	Television film
1989	The Last Warrior	Imperial Marine
1990	Murder in Paradise		Television film
1990	The Bakery	Kim Lee	Television film
1990	Vestige of Honor	Thai Major	Television film
1991	Kickboxer 2: The Road Back	Sanga
1991	Not of This World	Shikido	Television film
1991	The Perfect Weapon	Kai
1991	Showdown in Little Tokyo	Funekei Yoshida
1991	Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis	Hashimoto	Television film
1992	American Me	El Japo
1992	Nemesis	Angie-Liv
1993	Rising Sun	Eddie Sakamura
1994	Natural Causes	Major Somchal
1994	Day of Reckoning	Prakit	Television film
1994	Picture Bride	Kanzuki
1995	The Dangerous	Kon
1995	Thunder in Paradise 3	Mason Lee	Video
1995	Mortal Kombat	Shang Tsung
1995	Soldier Boyz	Vinh Moc
1996	White Tiger	Victor Chow
1996	The Phantom	The Great Kabai Sengh
1996	Danger Zone	Monsieur Chang
1997	Raven: Return of the Black Dragon	Osato	Television film
1997	Top of the World	Captain Hefter
1997	Mortal Kombat: Annihilation	Shang Tsung	Uncredited flashback cameo
1998	Vampires	David Deyo
1998	Provocateur	Captain Jong
1998	American Dragons	Matsuyama
1999	NetForce	Leong Cheng
1999	Bridge of Dragons	General Ruechang
1999	Johnny Tsunami	Johnny Tsunami	Television film
1999	Snow Falling on Cedars	Zenhichi Miyamoto
1999	Fixations	Alex
2000	The Art of War	David Chan
2001	Pearl Harbor	Cmdr. Minoru Genda
2001	Planet of the Apes	Krull
2003	Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding	Mason Sato	Television film
2004	Fallacy
2004	Bushido	Tetsuji	Video short
2005	Elektra	Roshi
2005	Faith of My Fathers	Cat	Television film
2005	True Love & Mimosa Tea	Andreas Kanaka	Short
2005	The Sand Island Drive-In Anthem	Uncle C	Short
2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	The Baron
2006	The Slanted Screen	Himself	Documentary film
2006	Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo	Brushogan (voice)
2007	Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board	Johnny Tsunami	Television film
2007	Balls of Fury	Mysterious Asian Man
2007	Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter	Alibek
2008	Lost Warrior: Left Behind	Detective Yoshide	Video
2008	Ghost Voyage	The Steward	Television film
2008	Bodyguard: A New Beginning	Kai
2009	By the Will of Chingis Khan	Bodyguard
2009	The Legend of Chang Apana	Chang Apana	Short
2009	Hachiko: A Dog's Story	Ken
2009	Tekken	Heihachi Mishima
2009	The Tomb	Len Burris
2010	Absolute.ness	Chief Dax	Short
2010	Overturned	Judge	Short
2010	Robin Hood of the Bayous	Narrator, Pirate 1	Documentary short
2012	Black Cobra	Goro Tanaka	Video
2013	47 Ronin	Shogun Tsunayoshi
2014	Hype Nation 3D	Sammy Kata
2014	Priest-San (Iereus-san)	Father Nikolai (Takuro) Nakamura	Russian film
2014	Ninja Apocalypse	Fumitaka
2014	Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge	Heihachi Mishima
2014	Skin Trade	Senator Khat
2015	Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon	Genghis Khan	Short
2015	Junction	Narrator
2015	The Man with the Iron Fists 2	The Mayor
2015	Little Boy	Hashimoto
2016	Showdown in Manila	Aldric Cole
2016	Beyond the Game
2016	Kubo and the Two Strings	Hashi (voice)
2016	The Whole World at Our Feet	Khazar
2016	Duel of Legends	Shing	Completed
2017	Sky Sharks	Michael Morel	Pre-Production
TBA	Reagan	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987, 1989	Miami Vice	Kenji Fujitsu, Tegoro	Episode: "The Rising Sun of Death" and "Asian Cut"
1987	MacGyver	Asian Buyer	Episode: "Dalton, Jack of Spies"
1987	The Colbys	Mr. Sung	Episode: "Devil's Advocate"
1987	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Mandarin Bailiff	Episode: "Encounter at Farpoint"
1988	Hotel	Inspector Chin	Episode: "Double Take"
1989	Superboy	Detective Jed Slade	Episode: "Terror from the Blue"
1989	Knots Landing	Mr. Toyo	Episode: "Giganticus II: The Revenge"
1989	Moonlighting	Artist	Episode: "Perfetc"
1989	A Peaceable Kingdom	Coach	Episode: "Chimp"
1989	Alien Nation	Yamato	Episode: "The First Cigar
1989	Mission: Impossible	Vang Kai	Episode: "Countdown"
1990	Jake and the Fatman	Raymond Char	Episode: "Chinatown, My Chinatown"
1990	Hardball		Episode: "Wedding Bell Blues"
1991	Baywatch	Mason Sato	Episode: "War of Nerves"
1992	Raven	Osato	Episodes: "Return of the Black Dragon" and "Reunion"
1993	Renegade	Hirotaka	Episode: "Samurai"
1993-1994	Space Rangers	Zylyn	6 episodes
1995	Babylon 5	Morishi	Episode: "Convictions"
1996	Cybill	Kenji	Episode: "Cybill and Maryann Go to Japan"
1996-1997	Nash Bridges	Lt. A.J. Shimamura	12 episodes
1996	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Shang Tsung	Episode: "Sweet & Sour Victory"
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	King Young-Jin	Episode: "The Little Mermaid"
1997	Stargate SG-1	Turghan	Episode: "Emancipation"
1998	Poltergeist: The Legacy	Sam Tanaka	Episode: "The Internment"
1998	Vengeance Unlimited	Aung Myint	Episode: "Ambition"
1999	Seven Days	Peter	Episode: "Walter"
2000	Walker, Texas Ranger	Master Ko	Episode: "Black Dragons"
2004	Hawaii	Captain Terry Harada
2007	Heroes	The Swordsmith	Episodes: "Chapter Six 'The Line'" and "Chapter Seven 'Out of Time'"
2009	Beyond the Break	Xander	Episodes: "One 'Elle' of a Party" and "Cast Away"
2010	Hawaii Five-0	Hiro Nashimori	Episodes: "Ke Kinoho" and "Pahele"
2012-2013	Revenge	Satoshi Takeda	6 episodes
2013	Mortal Kombat: Legacy	Shang Tsung	3 episodes
2014	Teen Wolf	Katashi (Silverfinger)	Episode: "Silverfinger"
2014	The Librarians	Mr. Drake	Episode: "And the Apple of Discord"
2015-present	The Man in the High Castle	Nobusuke Tagomi	main cast

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Soldier Boyz	Vinh Moc
2003	Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu	Sin Tzu
2016	Overwatch	Narrator	Episode: "Dragons"

Bibliography