Masi Oka plays the charismatic teleporter Hiro Nakamura on the hit NBC show “Heroes.” Read on to discover ten facts you didn’t know about the actor Masi Oka, including his surprising relationship to “Star Wars,” and his power over what Hiro Nakamura says on the air.
1. In addition to speaking fluent English and Japanese, Masi Oka is also proficient in Spanish and German.
2. Unlike Hiro Nakamura, who is average in all ways before discovering his hidden power, Masi Oka has never seemed ordinary. A former child prodigy, Masi Oka has an IQ of 180 points. His out-of-the-ordinary intellect landed him on the cover on Time magazine in a feature about Asian child geniuses.
3. Masi Oka has put his substantial brainpower to use as a programmer for Industrial Light and Magic, the leading special effects company in the United States. As of 2006, the television star told reporters he continues to work part time at ILM when his schedule permits. Industrial Light & Magic was founded by George Lucas, who still takes an active role in keeping the company on the cutting edge. Masi Oka’s work as a digital artists has appeared in hit movies including “The Perfect Storm,” “War Of The Worlds” and “Star Wars” episodes I, II, and III. When credited as an effects technician, Oka prefers using his full first name, Masayori
4. In 2004, Masi Oka co-wrote and acted in a short film called “Chester’s Big Night.” The surreal comedy centers on a late-night showdown between the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman.
5. The actor was born in Tokyo, but left Japan and was raised in the United States after he moved with his mother to Los Angeles at the tender age of six.
6. The swordfighting skills that Masi Oka shows off occasionally as Hiro Nakamura on “Heroes” are those of a trained fighter. One of Oka’s favorite hobbies is practicing Kendo, a form of Japanese swordfighting.
7. Masi Oka is one of a select few prime time television stars who can boast an ivy league degree. He graduated from prestigious Brown University in 1997. At Brown, he double majored in computer science and mathematics, and earned a minor in theatre.
8. Masi Oka has a substantial role in shaping what “Heroes” viewers see and hear on the air; he does double-duty both as an actor and as a translator for the show! The writers of “Heroes” give Oka the scripts in English, and the actor translates the lines into Japanese for the Japanese-speaking character Hiro Nakamura.
9. Five years before landing his career-making role as Hiro Nakamura on “Heroes,” Masi Oka made his television debut on a 2001 episode of the situation comedy “Dharma and Greg.”
10. In one interview, Oka confessed that he has played the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft extensively in the past, and even ran his own guild in the “Spinebreaker” realm of the game.
