Jason Tobin

Tobin was born in Hong Kong,^[2] where he attended the King George V School in Kowloon. He also attended boarding schools in the UK. His father is English and his mother is Chinese.^[3] After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career.^[4]

Tobin has appeared in several films and television productions. His breakout film was Better Luck Tomorrow by Justin Lin, starring alongside Parry Shen, Sung Kang, Roger Fan and John Cho, which debuted at Sundance Festival. In New York Magazine, critic Bilge Ebiri described enjoying "...one cracker jack performance, in Jason Tobin’s unbridled portrayal of a hyper, horny, and confused brat." Featuring the adventures of four overachievers, the film is widely praised for breaking the model minority stereotype of Asian Americans on screen.^[5][6][7][8] 17 years later, Los Angeles Times named it the best Asian American film of all time after review by critics.^[9]

Tobin was one of several Better Luck Tomorrow cast members alongside Sung Kang to appear in the Fast & Furious franchise movies starting with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he portrayed one of Han's crew members and Sean's friend named Earl. He later reprised the character in F9.

He starred as the Eddy Tsai, the lead role in the Asian American "serial killer" film Chink, directed by Stanley Yung, written by Koji Steven Sakai and produced by Quentin Lee. For his performance in Chink (re-titled as #1 Serial Killer), Tobin won a "Best Actor" or "Breakout Performance for an Actor" award at the 2013 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.^[10][11] He also received a "Best Actor - Dramatic" award at the 2015 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival for his performance in the film Jasmine (2015).

In 2018, he reunited with director Justin Lin to star in the Cinemax series Warrior, a martial arts drama based on an original idea by the late Bruce Lee and produced by his daughter Shannon Lee.^[12] The Hollywood Reporter described Tobin "as a source of both unpredictable line-readings and humor",^[13] while The New York Times pointed out his charismatic performance.^[14] The series was renewed for a second season and third season until it was eventually cancelled in December 2023.^[15]

In February 2021, Tobin was cast as William Pan in the Netflix film Fistful of Vengeance.^[16] It was released on 17 February 2022.^[17]

In 2025, he stars in the Edward Berger film The Ballad of a Small Player with Colin Farrell and The Undeclared War with Simon Pegg. He is currently shooting Kung Fu Deadly in Dublin Ireland.

Tobin resides in Hong Kong, London, England and Sydney, Australia. He has a wife and three children.^[4]

He was influenced by Bruce Lee who inspired him when he was a child.^[3]