James Saito

James Tomio Saito was born on March 6, 1955 in Los Angeles, CA. Determined to become a great performer, Saito studied at the legendary HB Studios under the likes of Uta Hagen and Carol Rosenfeld, and kicked off his career with small roles on some of the most popular television series of the time: "M*A*S*H" (CBS 1972-1983), "The Waltons" (CBS 1972-1981), and "Soap" (ABC 1977-1981) among them. Saito made his feature film debut in the musical biopic "The Idolmaker" (1980), and appeared not long afterward in the cult classic "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984), although his scenes were ultimately cut. Around this time, Saito also began exploring stage work, beginning with a 1996 production of "Rashomon." Saito's big break would come in the form of the adolescent-directed action comedy "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990), in which he played the sword-wielding big bad Shredder, a well-known character from the source comics and cartoon series. Shortly afterward, Saito won attention for his role in a Broadway production of "The King and I." From there, he appeared in parts of varying size in the likes of "Die Hard With a Vengeance" (1995), "The Devil's Advocate" (1997), "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1999), and "Pearl Harbor" (2001). Back on the stage, Saito earned an Obie Award for his work in a 2007 production of "Durango." Next, Saito landed his first regular role on a television program, playing Dr. Frank Chen on the dramedy series "Eli Stone" (ABC 2008-09), after which he nabbed a recurring part on the soap opera "One Life to Live" (ABC 1968-2012). Saito again found attachment to a string of big name movies, namely Noah Baumbach's "While We're Young" (2014), Tim Burton's "Big Eyes" (2014), and the Woody Harrelson-starring "Wilson" (2017), before returning to the small screen for the Al Pacino-led biography drama "Paterno" (HBO 2018) and the superhero series "Cloak & Dagger" (Freeform 2018-). On the latter, Saito was cast as Dr. Bernard Sanjo, a friend of the titular character Tyrone "Cloak" Johnson.