# Any Detectives of Asian ancestry PLAYED by actors of Asian ancestry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348 "2015-06-24T12:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/221 "2015-09-22T11:23:57Z")
Born in Thailand of Cambodian ancestry, Tony Jaa was second-billed in SKIN TRADE as Detective Tony Vitayakul, investigating human traffickers by doing everything you’d expect – meeting with an informant, spotting clues at the scene of a crime, playing interrogator for the win – after kicking off the film with some undercover work. (It’s instant-viewable on Netflix right now: Jaa co-stars with Dolph Lundgren, with everyone from Peter Weller to Michael Jai White to Ron Perlman in supporting roles.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/222 "2015-09-24T02:17:23Z")
(His partner in that one: Detective Nung, as played by Maethi Thapthimthong.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/223 "2015-09-25T00:12:49Z")
Mark Dacascos is of Chinese/Japanese/Filipino ancestry, and has been top-billed in a number of things – but not _Chicago PD_, where Detective Jimmy Shi ain’t the star. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/224 "2015-09-26T00:40:59Z")
On TORCHWOOD, Naoko Mori played Toshiko Sato: the go-to character whenever our heroes needed someone to locate bombs hidden all over the city, or investigate a string of murders, or whatever. (I mean, sure, Jack Harkness is a hell of a con artist with an inhuman knack for winning gunfights – but what good is he unless someone else is on hand to track stuff down and conduct the occasional autopsy?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/225 "2015-09-27T00:23:52Z")
Back in '85, Robert Kim was Detective Sergeant Peter Kwan on HUNTER. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/226 "2015-09-28T02:03:37Z")
And in '86, he was Detective Lo in OMEGA SYNDROME. (Same year he was Detective Steven Lim in FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF – who doesn’t know _why_ the young woman flirting with Charlie Sheen came up with that implausible story about an intruder, but she’s obviously had a scare, and, hey, I sure hope your son is feeling better; tell him all the guys here at the station are pulling for him – but that hardly counts.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/227 "2015-09-29T01:47:34Z")
Be that as it may, in 1987 he was Detective Lee Van Minh in STEELE JUSTICE. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/228 "2015-09-30T01:01:28Z")
And then in '88, he was Sergeant Park in POLICE STORY: COP KILLER. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/229 "2015-09-30T10:40:42Z")
Priyanka Chopra counts as the lead in QUANTICO, right? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/230 "2015-10-02T01:22:19Z")
Well, in the absence of any reason to figure it _ain’t_ so – since the census helpfully specifies “Asian Indian”, sure as you can ask me which continent India is on and I’d say _well, it’s not Antarctica, and it’s not Africa; it’s Asia, innit?_ – I may as well make mention of Ravi Kapoor, who spent six seasons on CROSSING JORDAN as crime-solving forensic entomologist Mahesh Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/231 "2015-10-03T02:38:16Z")
And before that, he was Det. Sgt. Khan on episodes of RUTH RENDELL MYSTERIES. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/232 "2015-10-04T00:36:37Z")
Mayko Nguyen is of Vietnamese ancestry, and on ROOKIE BLUE played Sue Tran: the bomb-squad officer who’s romantically involved with Detective Dov Epstein – and helps him solve the occasional case – but isn’t technically a detective. But she followed up by joining the cast of CRACKED, playing Detective Elizabeth Liette in lotsa episodes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/233 "2015-10-04T06:51:47Z")
Nguyen also spent four seasons on _ReGenesis_ as Mayko Tran: first starting off as a Bioinformatics Researcher for, and eventually working her way up to the Executive Director of, the North American Biotechnology Commission: investigating mysterious disease outbreaks in general, and bioterrorism in particular, and thus and such. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/234 "2015-10-04T13:44:26Z")
Che Fong, the crime lab technician in the original\*\*\* Five-0\*\*\* was Asian-American. He was played by Harry Endo. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/235 "2015-10-05T21:44:26Z")
The current version of HAWAII FIVE-0 had Garret Sato as Detective Ahuna. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/236 "2015-10-07T01:38:18Z")
And before that, Sato played a detective on ER. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/237 "2015-10-07T09:25:53Z")
And before _that,_ Sato was on 24 – as Wu San, advising Cheng Zhi, played by the aforementioned Tzi Ma. Wu San doesn’t count, but Cheng Zhi does: as the Head of Security at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, he was the guy tasked with leading the investigation after an illegal raid on said consulate left the Consul dead – and danged if Zhi didn’t get his man by painstakingly reviewing security-camera footage before realizing the truth about falsified documents and interrogating a suspect for the win, by which I mean _“into ratting out Jack Bauer.”_ Caught red-handed, the White House agreed to turn Bauer over to China – and, since Zhi is a hell of a detective, he didn’t just leave Bauer to rot in a prison cell, but figured, _hey, why not also Columbo this idiot into revealing the identity of an American spy?_ A conned Bauer promptly obliged, and a triumphant Zhi promptly put Bauer back behind bars. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/238 "2015-10-08T23:56:20Z")
Back in '06, Gwendoline Yeo was Doctor Kelly Lee by day on GENERAL HOSPITAL and Xiao-Mei by night on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES – neither of which counts, but the year _after_ that she was second-billed to Rutger Hauer as Detective Anne Hastings (uh, her; not him; I phrased that badly) in DEAD TONE. You maybe saw her earlier _this_ year, in AMERICAN CRIME, as Sergeant Richelle Yoon? (No, not a police sergeant; Yoon’s of the “US Army” variety, and the fiancée of the son of the characters played by Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman.) (Gah, that sentence is phrased even more awkwardly than the other one was ) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/239 "2015-10-09T01:40:57Z")
Boy – this thread has unexpected legs ! I figured I should come back in here, having started the thread. The reason I did, as I say in the OP, is because so many detective movie series in the 1930s and 1940s – Charlie Chan, Mr. Wong, Mr. Moto – seemed to be played almost exclusively by white actors. Even when they were revived and parodied in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, they were played by non-Asian actors. Even Judge Dee, which used a full cast of Asian descent, managed to have its chief role played by an Anglo-African. (It wasn’t any better with Asian villains – Fu Manchu was played by Western actors, even in the 60s and 70s. J. Carroll Naish played Japanese and Chinese bad guys. Fu Manchu’s daughter was played by Myrna Loy, Gloria FRanklin, and other anglo actresses. Anna May Wong actually played her once, although she hated to do it, feeling it was a degrading role, and other women of Asian descent played her in the 1940s and opposite Christopher Le in the 1960s. But we had Bette Davis on TV as the female Fu Manchu character Madame Sin in 1972. So I was looking for actors of Asian descent playing the lead detective in a series of films or a TV series – American or British movies or TV. I knew about Jack Soo on _Barney Miller_ and Robert Ito as Sam on Quncey ME (the lead character modeled, ironically, on Thomas Noguchi), but these weren’t leads. I have to admit that I didn’t know about the bulk of the names submitted. Most aren’t the leads, or the series are from Asia. But there were some that fit the bill – and which I was totally unfamiliar with. I honestly had never heard of Shelby Woo, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/240 "2015-10-09T23:58:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Boy – this thread has unexpected legs ! I’m guessing I could keep this going indefinitely, with folks who aren’t the lead… > [@](#): > > I was looking for actors of Asian descent playing the lead detective in a series of films or a TV series – American or British movies or TV. I knew about Jack Soo on _Barney Miller_ and Robert Ito as Sam on Quncey ME (the lead character modeled, ironically, on Thomas Noguchi), but these weren’t leads. …but is second-billed really all that unforgivable? I mean, I mentioned flick after flick after flick where the criminal is the lead and so the detective is second-billed – plus the one where the regular-guy-in-over-his-head is the lead, and the detective who keeps patiently explaining stuff to him is second-billed – because that’s, like, all _kinds_ of classic, ain’t it? Harvey Keitel was top-billed over Tim Roth in RESERVOIR DOGS, and Al Pacino was top-billed over Johnny Depp as Donnie Brasco, and Harrison Ford got top billing over Tommy Lee Jones earning the supporting-actor Oscar as the lawman hunting him. It’s Jean Valjean’s story, Inspector Javert just lives in it. (Russell Crowe was second-billed in AMERICAN GANGSTER; Bradley Cooper was second-billed in AMERICAN HUSTLE; we can work our way down through the alphabet, with Jack Nicholson getting top billing as the Joker over Michael Keaton as BATMAN, and Leonardo DiCaprio getting top billing over Tom Hanks in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, and so on; I probably can’t keep this list going as long the one for detectives of Asian ancestry played by actors of Asian ancestry, but it’s still _pretty_ de rigueur.) And, to take it a step further (and make sure I’m bumping the thread with something relevant), lemme add that, sure, Archie Panjabi has only won a supporting-actress Emmy for her role as sleuth Kalinda Sharma on THE GOOD WIFE – which she’s been on for plenty longer than Jack Soo was doing his thing on BARNEY MILLER – but isn’t the important thing that she’s the best damn detective on the show? > [@](#): > > I have to admit that I didn’t know about the bulk of the names submitted. Most aren’t the leads, or the series are from Asia. Well, even leaving aside what I was just saying, there’s still Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan and Don Wilson and Kristin Kreuk and Jet Li and David Yip and Priyanka Chopra and Sammo Hung and Russell Wong and Maggie Q and Chow Yun-Fat and Irene Ng and Jason Yee and Jun Sung Kim and David Yip and Jason Scott Lee and Tôru Nakamura and Brandon Lee – and, since I’ve been thinking about it, I’m starting to think that Brandon Lee maybe deserves a second point for THE CROW, since, yeah, okay, he gets superhuman _physical_ powers, but he keeps needing to interrogate the criminals and study the evidence, because how far does being a powerhouse get you when the hard part is _trying to figure out just who the other crooks are?_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=13)