Yuji Okumoto

Japanese-American actor Yuji Okumoto won a number of key roles throughout his early career in the 1980s, including parts in hits "True Believer" and "The Karate Kid, Part II," and has settled nicely into smaller supporting and cameo roles since. Raised in Hollywood, Okumoto fell into acting while at school and afterwards began working with various theater companies in California. His first major screen part came in 1986 as gang leader Chozen in the hit sequel "The Karate Kid, Part II." His charisma and presence in this role helped land him the part of Shu Kai Kim, a young Korean imprisoned for a gangland crime, in the James Woods-Robert Downey Jr. legal-conspiracy thriller "True Believer." In the early '90s he began to work more in television, notably as Art Nam on the evening soap "Knots Landing." Appearances on prime-time dramas were punctuated by supporting work in some major Hollywood films, including David Fincher's mind-bending thriller "The Game" and Peter Weir's comedy-drama "The Truman Show." This mix of television and small roles in blockbusters continued for Okumoto into the 2000s, with a part in the Michael Bay epic "Pearl Harbor," roles on such sitcoms as "Just Shoot Me!," and a part on the police procedural "Bones," as well as a high-profile role alongside Ken Watanabe in the 2010 corporate-espionage thriller "Inception."