A veteran of episodic television, handsome Asian-American character actor Daniel Dae Kim became a familiar face on the small screen, but he attained true television stardom—despite his character’s inability to speak English--in 2004 when he was cast as the mysterious, emotional crash survivor Jin-Soo Kwok on the hit drama “Lost” (ABC, 2004 - ).
Kim’s career got off to a slow start in the early 1990’s, but took off impressively after he moved to Los Angeles in 1997. Kim found work almost immediately on television and spent the next two years rapidly building up his resume on a variety of hit shows, including: “Beverly Hills, 90210” (FOX, 1990-2000), “Seinfeld” (NBC, 1990-98), “Party of Five”(FOX, 1994-2000), “Ally McBeal” (FOX, 1997-2002) and “Walker: Texas Ranger” (CBS, 1993-2001). Kim’s displayed knack for playing strong, enigmatic characters made him a favorite on the guest star circuit as a recurring player.
Born in Korea, Kim immigrated to America in 1970 at the age of two and grew up the ethnically diverse suburb of Easton, Pennsylvania. A born gifted athlete, Kim attended Freedom High School where he played several varsity sports including football, golf, and tennis. Kim was also editor of his school newspaper and was elected student government president during his senior year. While these accomplishments reflected Kim’s successful Americanization from an early age, it did not come at the expense of his Korean heritage -- Kim’s parents saw to that. Raised in a Korean-speaking household, Kim became bilingual at an early age by speaking Korean exclusively at home and speaking English at school.
Kim attended Bryn Mawr College, where he discovered acting for the first time. Against the advice of his parents – both of whom were well-educated professionals – Kim changed his major from finance, earning his Masters degree in Theater Arts from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.
Kim made his professional screen debut in 1991’s “American Shaolin”- a martial-arts themed action pic directed by Lucas Lowe. Made on the cheap and released under a host of different titles, “American Shaolin” was one of a long list of martial-arts themed action titles produced during the heydays of direct-to-video releases. Light on plot, but heavy on adrenalin, “American Shaolin” followed the familiar East-meets-West formula with Kim as Gao, an antagonistic Chinese monk with a mean kung-fu technique, but little else in terms of character.
Among his more prestigious credits are “The Jackal” (1997), the hip-hop action thriller, “Cradle 2 the Grave” (2003), as well as the big-budget comic book epic “The Hulk” (2003). Showing an affinity for super-heroes, Kim popped up again a year later in yet another movie based on a Marvel Comics character, this time in Sam Raimi’s mega-blockbuster hit, “Spider Man 2” (2004).
However, it is his work on the small screen for which Kim became best known. Kim’s professional career in television began in 1994 while still living in New York, beginning with a guest stint on the venerable drama “Law & Order.” Though it was only a small part, it was still a foot in the door—but Kim’s first appearance on television proved to be his last for the next three years. Having exhausted all his opportunities in New York, Kim finally moved to Los Angeles in 1997 where he began getting work immediately.
Kim’s first role as a series regular was on the short-lived science fiction series, “Crusade” (1999), a spin-off of the cult hit “Babylon 5” (Syndicated, 1994-1999), which seemed to be the breakout role Kim had been waiting for. Cast as Lt. John Matheson, the telepathic first officer of the starship Excalibur, Kim beat out several actors and became a favorite of the show’s fans. Though the series was canceled after just six episodes, it was a triumph for Kim given the fact that the role of Matheson had originally been written with a Caucasian actor in mind.
After the show folded, Kim continued to find work as a guest star on several television shows. Kim proved so popular with producers and viewers alike that he was often called back as a recurring player on many of these series: most prominently, Kim played amoral attorney Gavin Park on the hit drama “Angel” (WB, 1999-2004). Kim reprised his role on “Angel” for a dozen episodes before his character was killed off.
The following year, Kim made a string of appearances on another hit series. Cast as government agent Tom Baker on the serial drama, “24” (FOX, 2001 -), Kim turned up throughout the 2002-03 season. As the character’s surname suggests, the role marked the second time that Kim was cast in a role originally intended for a Caucasian.
In 2004, Kim landed his biggest role yet when he joined the ensemble cast of the adventure drama “Lost” (ABC, 2004- ). This time, Kim played a character whose ethnicity was undeniably Korean. As the hotheaded Jin-Soo Kwok, Kim played a controlling husband marooned with his wife, Sun (played by Yunjin Kim) on a not-so-deserted island with a dozen other survivors of a plane crash. Preparing for the role of Jin required Kim to polish up on his conversational Korean (which had since grown rusty). In his first major episode, (titled “House of the Rising Son”), Kim spoke his dialogue almost entirely in Korean.
Kim continued his run of high-profile features with the sci-fi horror thriller, “The Cave” (2005), playing the photographer on a team of explorers leading a pair of biologists into an elaborate cave system beneath the newly discovered ruins of a 13th century Romanian abbey. But instead of discovering an new ecosystem, as the biologists had hoped, the group finds a new species of unique and unwelcoming beings formed by the isolated environment. A clichéd storyline, unknown cast and lack of aggressive advertising ensured a $6 million opening weekend.