Tim Kano is a New Zealand actor, known for playing Leo Tanaka in the Australian television soap opera '' Neighbours'' from 2016 until 2022. He also stars in the 2021 horror film '' Great White''.

Early life

Kano's mother Sue is from New Zealand with Irish heritage, and his father Fujio, was Japanese. Kano was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

and grew up between

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand and Japan with his sister Maya. Upon returning to New Zealand after spending his primary school years in Japan, Kano took modelling and acting jobs and completed a media and film studies course. Kano returned to Japan to study Political Science at university in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Working in politics was a goal for Kano, who worked for MP Chris Carter for a year.

Career

Beginning his career in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, Kano played an extra in ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...

'' and had some other small parts in TV and movies from 2001. Kano's big break came when he joined Australian soap opera, '' Neighbours'' in 2016 as Leo Tanaka. He obtained the role after auditioning for both parts of twin brother roles, with the second twin role of

David Tanaka David Tanaka is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera '' Neighbours'', played by Takaya Honda. He made his first appearance in the main show during the episode broadcast on 21 September 2016. The character was introduced alongside ...

eventually going to

Takaya Honda Takaya Honda (born 6 September 1987) is an actor and television presenter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Josh in the children's television series '' A gURLs wURLd'', Klaus Thomson in the comedy series '' The Family Law'' and David Ta ...

. With the goal of making a life in Hollywood, Kano left ''Neighbours'' in 2019, but made a return in 2021. In 2019, Kano filmed the movie '' Great White'' and played Joji, a Japanese businessman. In 2021, Kano played Ian in the TV comedy series, ''The Power of the Dream''. He also featured in the Paramount+ comedy series ''

Spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

''.

Personal life

Kano resides in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

with his dog and is a fan of 1950s American men's style. Once a singer in a punk band, Kano can also play guitar. Franklin Fisher of the band Algiers, is Kano's brother in-law. In 2018, Kano was nominated as a ''Cosmopolitan'' Bachelor of the Year.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kano, Tim New Zealand male film actors New Zealand male television actors 1986 births New Zealand male soap opera actors New Zealand people of Irish descent New Zealand people of Japanese descent People from Christchurch Living people