I just read about Masi Oka in Angry Asian Man, which was on a piece in The San Francisco Chronicle’s “Tech Cronicles, “Masi Oka gets smart at the Apple store“:
“Masi Oka, who you may know from the hit NBC show Heroes, made an appearance Wednesday night at the downtown San Francisco Apple store to promote the summer flick “Get Smart.” Oka, along with Nate Torrence, also star in a special Get Smart DVD, “Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control,” which of course will be available on iTunes. In an interview, Oka, a former programmer for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, chatted about how he owns seven Macintosh computers, including a MacBook Pro and G5. He also plans to purchase the new iPhone 3G, although he had hoped it would be available on other cell phone networks besides AT&T.”
Too bad I didn’t hear about Masi being in San Francisco, since I am big fan of Heroes and of Masi ! I was able to meet James Kyson Lee, Masi’s Heroes sidekick, Ando, last year at APA 5’s Inspire in San Francisco.
I have a friend who used to work for Industrial Light & Magic who knew Masi when he was a software developer at ILM and remembers him leaving to try to pursue a career in Hollywood. As you know, the chances of breaking out in Hollywood are pretty slim – and a LOT slimmer if you are an Asian American male actor. (and as Survivor winner Yul Kwon has often noted, a lot of Asian American men play foreigners on TV or film – i.e. Asians (who don’t speak English or English poorly) rather than Asian Americans).
I haven’t seen Get Smart, the movie, yet, but do want to. However, I’m a little concerned that Masi is sort of playing a somewhat stereotypical R&D gadget inventor/scientist. Then again, Masi did get a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Brown.
