Mark Dacascos

Dacascos was born on February 26, 1964, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Al Dacascos, is of Filipino descent and was born in Hawaii; he is a martial arts instructor and the founder of Wun Hop Kuen Do. He was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 1999.^[5][6] His mother, Moriko McVey-Murray, is Irish of Japanese descent.^[7] In the History Channel presentation Samurai, Dacascos revealed that many members of his mother's family were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima. His stepmother is award-winning martial artist Malia Bernal. He attended Los Angeles Valley College, where he was on the gymnastics team. He also attended Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He is proficient in his father's style of martial arts, Wun Hop Kuen Do, and holds a 4th degree black belt. He has also extensively studied Muay Thai, capoeira with Amen Santo, and Wushu.^[1] Growing up, Dacascos was inspired by Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.^[8]

During his upbringing he lived a time in Hamburg, Germany, where he learned to speak German.^[9]

Dacascos became an actor after being discovered walking down the street in San Francisco's Chinatown by Chris Lee (assistant director) and Rexall Chinn (hairstylist), who at the time were working for director Wayne Wang. He was cast in Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, and though his scenes were cut from the final film, he went on to establish a film and television career primarily playing martial artists. He was originally set to play as the Red Ranger, Victor Lee, in Bio-Man, an adaptation of Choudenshi Bioman produced by Haim Saban. The show was not picked up at the time, but the concept evolved into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.^[10]

His breakout role was in the 1993 film Only the Strong, in which he played Louis, a capoeira master who takes a high school's struggling students and turns their lives around by teaching them the Brazilian martial art based on the ritual combat technique of Angola. In the following year, Dacascos co-starred with Party of Five's Scott Wolf as Jimmy and Billy Lee, respectively, in the film Double Dragon, based on the video game with the same name.

He plays the role of the Chairman on Iron Chef America, Iron Chef Australia and Iron Chef: Mexico. In the series' backstory, Dacascos's character is the nephew of the original Iron Chef Chairman, Takeshi Kaga.

He has been featured in many action films such as Drive, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Crying Freeman and Cradle 2 the Grave, in which he squared off against Jet Li. He also performed in three video games: voice acting in Stranglehold, live acting in Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom and digitally recreating The Chairman in the Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine video game for Wii.

Dacascos was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for his role in Brotherhood of the Wolf.^[11] He also appeared in the television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, which was a follow-up to the 1994 film The Crow. He also appears in the children's television show Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, where he portrays Eubulon, also known as the Advent Master, mentor of the Kamen Riders and creator of the Advent Decks.

Dacascos played the recurring role of Wo Fat on the CBS series Hawaii Five-0. He portrayed Kung Lao in the second season of the YouTube series Mortal Kombat: Legacy.^[12] He had a recurring role in the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Mr. Giyera, an Inhuman servant of Hydra who can manipulate inanimate objects.

In May 2019, Dacascos played Zero, a lead antagonist in the action thriller film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.^[13] He starred in a recurring role on the Netflix series Wu Assassins.^[14] He has reprised his role as The Chairman of the Iron Chef series in Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, which was released on Netflix in June 2022.^[15]

Dacascos is married to actress Julie Condra, who starred with him in the 1995 action film Crying Freeman, and also the 2020 film One Night in Bangkok.^[16] They have three children: two sons, Makoalani and Kapono, and a daughter, Noelani.^[17]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart	Fighter	Role deleted
1990	Angel Town	Stoner's Driver
1992	American Samurai	Kenjiro Sanga
1993	Only the Strong	Louis Stevens
	Roosters	Filipino's Son	Cameo
1994	Double Dragon	Jimmy Lee
1995	Deadly Past	Leo
	Redemption: Kickboxer 5	Matt Reeves	Direct-to-video
	Crying Freeman	Yo Hinomura / Crying Freeman
1996	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Lo-Mai
	Sabotage	Michael Bishop
	DNA	Dr. Ash Mattley
1997	Drive	Toby Wong
	Sanctuary	Luke Kovak
	Deathline	Merrick
1998	Boogie Boy	Jesse Page
	No Code of Conduct	Paul DeLucca
1999	The Base	Major John Murphy / Corporal John Dalton
2000	China Strike Force	Tony Lau
2001	Brotherhood of the Wolf	Mani
	Instinct To Kill	J.T. Dillon
2002	Scorcher	Colonel Ryan Beckett
2003	Cradle 2 the Grave	Ling
2005	Final Approach	Kato
	Nomad	Sharish
2006	Only the Brave	Steve "Zaki" Senzaki
	The Hunt for Eagle One	Lieutenant Matt Daniels
	The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point
2007	Code Name: The Cleaner	Eric Hauck
	Alien Agent	Rykker
	I Am Omega	Renchard
2008	Gideon Falls	Set
2009	Serbian Scars	Peter Olsen Obilich
2010	Shadows in Paradise	Lieutenant Max Forrester
	Secret of the Sultan
2013	The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone	"King Cobra"
2014	Roger Corman's Operation Rogue	Captain Max Randall
	The Extendables[18]	Mark
2016	Showdown in Manila	Matthew Wells	Also director and producer
2017	Maximum Impact	Tony Lin
2017	Ultimate Justice	Gus
2018	The Legend of Hallowaiian	Pono (voice)
2019	John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum	"Zero"
	The Driver	The Driver
	Lucky Day	Louis
2020	One Night in Bangkok	Kai Kahale
2021	Batman: Soul of the Dragon	Richard Dragon (voice)
2022	The Ray	Brando
	Blade of the 47 Ronin	Lord Shinshiro
2023	Knights of the Zodiac	Mylock
2024	Jade	Reese
TBA	Legend of the White Dragon	Xang

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Bio-Man	Victor Lee / Biorhythm Red	Failed pilot
1986–97	General Hospital	Police Cadet	4 episodes
1990	Doogie Howser, MD	Julian	Episode: "The Grass Ain't Always Greener"
	The Flash	Osaku	Episode: "Child's Play"
	New Dragnet	Kevin Chow	Episode: "Queen of Hearts"
1991	Dead on the Money	Martial Arts Teacher	Television film
1994	Dragstrip Girl	Johnny Ramirez	Television film
	Tales from the Crypt	Felix Johnson	Episode: "The Pit"
1995	One West Waikiki	Moku	Episode: "Rest in Peace"
1998–99	The Crow: Stairway to Heaven	Eric Draven / The Crow	22 episodes
1999	Martial Law	Steven Garth	Episode: "Ninety Million Reasons to Die"
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Ananda	Episode: "Felonious Monk"
2004–18	Iron Chef America	The Chairman	236 episodes
2006	Solar Attack	Lucas Foster	Television film
2007–08	Stargate Atlantis	Tyre	2 episodes
2007–12	The Next Iron Chef	The Chairman	16 episodes
2008	The Legend of Bruce Lee	Thai Boxer King Charles[19]	3 episodes
	The Middleman	Sensei Ping	Episode: "The Sino-Mexican Revelation"
2009	Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight	Eubulon / Advent Master	9 episodes
	Dancing with the Stars	Himself	7 episodes
	Wolvesbayne	Von Griem	Television film
2010–20	Hawaii Five-0	Wo Fat	17 episodes
2014	Chicago P.D.	Jimmy Shi	Episode: "Different Mistakes"
2015–16	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Giyera[20]	11 episodes
2016	Lucifer	Kimo Vanzandt	Episode: "Weaponizer"
2017	The Perfect Bride	Daniel Counter	Television film
2019	Wu Assassins	Monk/ Kun Zi	Recurring role[14]
2022	Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend	The Chairman	5 episodes
2023	Warrior	Kong Pak[21]	Main Role (Season 3)
2023	SpongeBob SquarePants	Guru Greasetrap	Episode: "Spatula of the Heavens"
	Blue Eye Samurai	Bloodsoaked Chiaki (voice)	Recurring cast

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Video games

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role
1996	Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom	Troy 'Catscratch' Carter

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Web series

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	Mortal Kombat: Legacy	Kung Lao	4 episodes

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