Masi Oka

Masayori "Masi" Oka (岡 政偉, Oka Masayori, December 27, 1974) is a Japanese actor, producer, and digital effects artist who became widely known for starring in NBC's Heroes as Hiro Nakamura and in CBS's Hawaii Five-0 as Doctor Max Bergman.

Early life
Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Setsuko Oka. His parents divorced when he was one month old; he was raised in a single parent family and has never met his father. He was six years old when his mother and he moved to Los Angeles from Japan. At age eight, he appeared on the CBS-TV game show Child's Play. In 1987, a 12-year-old Oka was featured as one of several children on the cover of Time magazine, for the article "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids." Though he was not featured in the article itself, he was acquainted with the photographer who conducted the shoot. In 1988, he placed fourth in the California state MATHCOUNTS competition and was one of the four students to represent the state of California in the national competition.

Oka attended Brown University, where he was musical director of The Bear Necessities all-male a cappella group. He graduated in 1997 with a BS in computer science and mathematics and a minor in theater arts.

Oka landed his first job after graduation at Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas's motion picture visual special effects company, with the hope of one day earning an Oscar for technical work on a motion picture. He was also featured in the San Francisco Chronicle with ILM co-worker Anthony Shafer in a pre-dot-com article where he echoed his desire to meld acting and technology. He worked on the Star Wars prequel trilogy.