Christopher Inadomi Tashima (born March 24, 1960) is a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest As ...

actor and director. He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and

Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

of its Asian American theatre company,

Cedar Grove OnStage Cedar Grove OnStage is an Asian Pacific American theatre arts organization established in 2006, based in Los Angeles, co-founded by playwright Tim Toyama and actor/director Chris Tashima who serves as Artistic Director. It is a division of the en ...

. Tashima directed, co-wrote, and starred in the 26-minute film '' Visas and Virtue'' for which he and producer

Chris Donahue Chris Donahue (born John Christopher Donahue) is an American film and television producer. He began his career as a producer in television news and documentaries, then transitioned to narrative film and television at the American Film Institute ...

won the 1998

Academy Award for Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under various names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, "Best Short Subject, One ...

Personal

Tashima was born on the East Coast, while his father ( Judge A. Wallace Tashima) attended

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, but grew up in California. He lived in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, where he began

Suzuki Method The Suzuki method is a music curriculum and teaching philosophy dating from the mid-20th century, created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898–1998). The method aims to create an environment for learning music which para ...

violin at age 6. His family moved to Berkeley, where he lived for nine years, attending The College Preparatory School. He returned to Southern California, graduating from John Marshall High School (1978). He attended UC Santa Cruz ( Porter College), where he studied film production. He also attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

, and took additional filmmaking courses at Visual Communications (VC). He started his acting career at East West Players in 1985. He is the son of U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima. He currently resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

Actor

Tashima stars as the romantic lead opposite

Joan Chen Joan Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese-American actress and film director. In China, she performed in the 1979 film and came to the attention of American audiences for her performance in the 1987 film '' The Last Emperor''. She is also ...

in Eric Byler's '' Americanese'', an unreleased feature from

IFC First Take IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its Su ...

. The film won two awards after its world premiere at the

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

, including a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding

Ensemble Cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

. He has also appeared in Sherwood Hu's ''

Lani Loa - The Passage Lani is a given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Lani Belcher (born 1989), British canoeist * Lani Billard (born 1979), Canadian actress and singer * Lani Brockman (born 1956), American theater actress and director * Lan ...

'' (1998) with Angus Macfadyen, and Rea Tajiri's ''

Strawberry Fields The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus ''Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely app ...

'' (1997) with Suzy Nakamura. He starred opposite

Tamlyn Tomita Tamlyn Naomi Tomita (born January 27, 1966) is a Japanese-American actress and singer. She made her screen debut as Kumiko in ''The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986) and reprised the character for the streaming series ''Cobra Kai'' (2021). She is also ...

in the 1995 AFI short, ''

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

'', directed by actress

Elizabeth Sung Elizabeth Fong Sung (; 14 October 1954 – 22 May 2018) was a Chinese-American actress, director, and screenwriter. She was also a revered acting teacher and mentor to young performers and filmmakers in the Asian-Pacific community. Early life a ...

. Tashima also played the real-life historical figure, journalist and civil rights advocate Sei Fujii in George Shaw's and Jeffrey Gee Chin's short film, ''Lil Tokyo Reporter''. He also played GameKeeper (Mr. Chan) in the film ''

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

''. His stage credits include originating roles in Ken Narasaki's '' No-No Boy'', Chay Yew’s ''A Language of Their Own'' ( LA Weekly Theater Award for Ensemble Performance, shared with

Noel Alumit Noël Alumit is an American novelist, actor, and activist.Emmanuel S. Nelson, ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2009. . p. 21. He was identified as one of the Top 100 Influential Ga ...

, Anthony David and

Dennis Dun Dennis Dun (born April 19, 1952) is an American actor. Early life and education Dun is from Stockton, California. He is of Chinese descent. Film and TV Dun has had prominent roles in several films, notably '' Year of the Dragon'' ( 1985), '' B ...

) at

Celebration Theatre The Celebration Theatre is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theatre company in Los Angeles, founded in 1982. The company is located in West Hollywood, on the west end of Theatre Row, and specializes in works representing the LGBTQ+ experience. History C ...

, Laurence Yep's '' Dragonwings'' at

Berkeley Repertory Theatre Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley. History The company was founded in 1968, as the East Bay's first resident ...

– on Tour and at Zellerbach Playhouse, (reprised at

Intiman Playhouse Intiman Theatre Festival in Seattle, Washington, was founded in 1972 as a resident theatre by Margaret "Megs" Booker, who named it for August Strindberg's Stockholm theater.

by Seattle Children's Theatre,

Alliance Theatre Company The Alliance Theatre is a theater company in Atlanta, Georgia, based at the Alliance Theatre, part of the Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center, and is the winner of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award. The company, originally the Atlanta Municipal T ...

in Atlanta, and Syracuse Stage),

Tim Toyama Tim Toyama (born April 28, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a playwright and producer. He is ''Sansei'' (third-generation Japanese American) living in Los Angeles, California. He is co-founder of the Asian American media company Cedar Grove Productio ...

's ''Visas and Virtue'', at the Road Theatre Company, and Wakako Yamauchi's ''The Memento'' at East West Players.

Director

Tashima won an

with producer

, for '' Visas and Virtue'' (1997), which he directed, co-wrote (adapting the one-act play by Toyama), and starred in. To produce ''Visas and Virtue'', he co-founded Cedar Grove Productions in 1996, with Toyama and Donahue. Tashima directed, co-wrote and acted in ''

Day of Independence ''Day of Independence'' is a 2003 short film, broadcast in 2005 as a half-hour PBS television special. It is a drama, set during the Japanese American internment of World War II, produced by Cedar Grove Productions with Visual Communications as f ...

'' (2003), a half-hour

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of e ...

for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

, produced by Lisa Onodera, which received a Regional Emmy Nomination from the

NATAS The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, ed ...

San Francisco/Northern California Chapter, in the category of Historical/Cultural — Program/Special. His stage directing credits include the world premiere of

Dan Kwong Dan Kwong is an American performance artist, writer, teacher and visual artist. He has been presenting his solo performances since 1989, often drawing upon his own life experiences to explore personal, historical, and social issues. His works ...

's '' Be Like Water'' produced by East West Players, in association with Cedar Grove OnStage, in September 2008. He has directed several shows with the Grateful Crane Ensemble, including the world premiere of Soji Kashiwagi's ''

Nihonmachi is a term used to refer to historical Japanese communities in Southeast and East Asia. The term has come to also be applied to several modern-day communities, though most of these are called simply " Japantown", in imitation of the common term ...

: The Place To Be'', presented in San Francisco in 2006.

Professional

Tashima is a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

, in the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, and belongs to the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merg ...

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording a ...

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in live theater, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage ...

and the

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), formerly known as Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC), is an independent national labor union established in 1959, representing theatrical directors and choreographer ...

. He is also a stage set designer. He won a 1995 Ovation Award for Best Set Design in a Smaller Theater, for ''

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet St ...

'', and a 1992 Drama-Logue Award for Scenic Design (shared with Christopher Komuro) for ''

Into The Woods ''Into the Woods'' is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. T ...

'', both at East West Players. Tashima served as

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

of the 1990 world premiere of ''Maui, December 7, 1941'', a play by Jon Shirota, based on his novel, "Lucky Come Hawaii." Directed by Mako, the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

comedy was presented at the InnerCity Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and received a nomination from the

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose pare ...

, for " Production of the Year."

Community

Honors: * "Japanese American of the Biennium" (shared with Toyama) – Presented by National JACL * "Bridge Builder" Asian American Leadership Award – Presented by A Magazine, New York, NY * Humanitarian Award – Presented by The "1939" Club, Los Angeles CA * Visionary Award (on behalf of Cedar Grove Productions) – Presented by East West Players, Los Angeles CArepost from Back Stage West, 6/18/98; EWP 32nd Anniversary Awards
/ref> * Community Award – Presented by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago IL * Special Recognition Award – Presented by the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Los Angeles CA

References

External links

*
Chris Tashima
on MySpace
In-depth interview of Chris Tashima in Asiance Magazine

Chris Tashima interviewed by Nichi Bei Times
at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Chris Tashima interviewed by Terry Nichols on SanDiegoYuYu.com - 3/1/05

Chris Tashima interviewed by Dennis Amith on asianconnections.com

Q&A with Chris Tashima
from San Diego Asian Film Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Tashima, Chris 1960 births Living people American male film actors American theatre directors of Japanese descent Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners American film directors of Japanese descent Male actors from Berkeley, California Male actors from Los Angeles People from the San Francisco Bay Area University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Film directors from California American male actors of Japanese descent American film actors of Asian descent