Chris Tashima

Known for ActingBorn 1960-03-24 (age 66)Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Chris Tashima is an award-winning American actor and director. He has starred in numerous independent feature films, most notably as the romantic lead opposite Joan Chen, Allison Sie, Kelly Hu and Autumn Reeser, in Eric Byler's Americanese which won a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast at SXSW. He was awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role, at the inaugural Love International Film Festival, for his portrayal of Papa Nakaji in Tim Savage's World War II family drama Under the Blood Red Sun produced by Dana Satler Hankins. He portrayed real-life educator/activist Shigeo Yoshida in the 442nd RCT origin story Go For Broke from producer/screenwriter Stacey Hayashi. Most recently, he played the hard-nosed Uncle Bob in the generational family comedy No No Girl from writer/director Paul Daisuke Goodman--for which he received two nominations at the Austin Revolution Film Festival, and he plays Hiro in Brian M. Tang's action/fantasy short Kodama, receiving its world premiere at SXSW 2023. Tashima received an Academy Award® for directing the dramatic short film Visas and Virtue, a re-telling of the heroic actions of Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. In addition he co-wrote the screenplay adapting a one-act play by Tim Toyama, and starred as the Humanitarian diplomat Sugihara. He also directed, co-wrote and starred in the WWII Japanese American internment short film Day of Independence which was nominated for a NATAS Northern California Area Emmy®. These two directorial works came from Tashima's own Cedar Grove Productions, an indie entertainment house aiming to "Boldly defy mainstream Hollywood by giving Asian Americans the close-up onscreen."Read more

Movies & web series

Day of Independence

The Mechanical Universe

The Shield

Sara

Barry Manilow: Big Fun on Swing Street

Unsolved Mysteries

The Fall Guy

Not My Kid

Highway to Heaven

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Good Morning, Vietnam

Lethal Weapon

Pee-wee's Playhouse

Requiem

Near Dark

Night of the Creeps

Independent Lens

Visas and Virtue

Strawberry Fields

The Sure Thing

Under the Blood-Red Sun

The Perfect Weapon

The Karate Kid Part II

Go for Broke

1st & Ten

Fun House

Lani Loa: The Passage

Vital Signs

Kodama

Barrier Device

Once Bitten

Scandal Sheet

St. Elsewhere

Moving Violations

Generation

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Killzone

Model Minority

Liberace: Behind the Music

Americanese

Overkill

Savage Dawn

Real Playing Game

No No Girl

Searching for Anna May Wong

Surviving Theater 9

Lil Tokyo Reporter

Half Kenneth