John Yo-Han Cho (Korean: 조요한; born June 16, 1972) is an American actor. As a performer, he is noted for his subtle and understated style of acting. He is known for his roles as John/MILF guy #2 in the American Pie film series (1999–2012), Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar film series (2004–2011), and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek reboot film series (2009–2016).
Cho became the first Asian American actor cast as a romantic lead in a romantic comedy series when he played Henry Higgs in the sitcom Selfie (2014) and the first to headline a mainstream Hollywood thriller film when he starred in Searching (2018), for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
Cho has had lead roles in television series such as FlashForward, Off Centre, and The Afterparty, and recurring roles in Sleepy Hollow and Difficult People. In his early career, Cho attained recognition for guest-starring in the fantasy television series Charmed.
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Early life and education
Cho was born as Cho Yo-Han (Korean: 조요한) on June 16, 1972 in Seoul, South Korea. He moved to the United States with his family when he was 6 years old in 1978. He was raised in Los Angeles, where his family settled after living in Houston, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Daly City, California; and Monterey Park, California. His father was a minister in the Church of Christ and was originally from North Korea. He grew up with one younger brother. At the time, his father believed in order to survive and assimilate in the U.S., Cho and his brother would need to stop speaking Korean and speak English instead. They would also watch American television as much as they could to absorb the new culture.
Cho graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, California, in 1990.
Cho attended the University of California, Berkeley. In 1994, he toured nationally for a stage production of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature.
Career
Acting
After graduation, Cho taught English literature at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood, California, while acting at East West Players in downtown Los Angeles. There, he appeared in Edward Sakamoto's The Taste of Kona Coffee in 1996 and in Euijoon Kim's film My Tired Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk in 2000.
Cho gained attention with a small role as "MILF guy #2" in the 1999 comedy American Pie, in which he popularized the slang term MILF. Cho reprised the role in three sequels: American Pie 2, American Wedding, and the latest installment American Reunion in which he has a much larger role. His character initially had no name, but he was given the name "John" in the third film, named after Cho himself.
Cho guest-starred on Charmed as the ghost of Mark Chao, one of leading character Piper Halliwell's most prominent love interests, in the episode "Dead Man Dating" in 1998; he indicated in 2024 that it was a role that he "gets asked about... all the time". He was one of the stars of the short-lived situation comedy Off Centre from 2001 to 2002; his character, Chau Presley, became the series' breakout character.
He was a costar on the Fox sitcom Kitchen Confidential, based on Anthony Bourdain's best-selling book. He had supporting roles in the science fiction comedy Evolution, directed by Ivan Reitman; Down to Earth; and Bowfinger.
In 2002, Cho had a starring role in the ensemble cast of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow, a drama focusing on the travails of a group of Asian Americans living in Southern California who are academically successful but socially discontented, and as a result engage in wantonly violent, criminal behavior. It was well received by critics, with Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times describing Cho's character's "lazy magnetism of which he is charmingly aware". Later that year, the movie Big Fat Liar was released, in which Cho played a Hong Kong-based film director. He refused to do the accent scripted for his character. The director worked with him to re-develop the role.
Cho had a successful starring role as Harold Lee in 2004's Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and reprised the role in 2008's Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay which earned $38 million at the box office, and again in 2011's A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas which made $35 million. Cho's role in the popular franchise was written specifically for him by Hayden Schlossberg, and Cho has recounted that when Schlossberg first approached him with the role, he was initially suspicious.
Music
Cho is the lead singer for Viva La Union (formerly known as Left of Zed), a Los Angeles garage rock band composed of former Berkeley and USC students. They have one album, self-titled, while their song "Chinese Baby" is on the Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay soundtrack.
Personal life
Cho married actress Kerri Higuchi in 2006. They met at UC Berkeley and later dated when they moved to Los Angeles. They have a son, born in 2008, and a daughter, born in 2013. As of 2015, he and his family live in Los Angeles, California. He is close to his father, a former preacher; he has said he would like to play a role in the story of his father's generation, growing up in North Korea through the Korean War.
Cho has said he found freedom in portraying Harold in the Harold and Kumar films because the stoner character goes against the grain of Asian Americans on screen. He has said he has experienced racism during his career in Hollywood and that he tries to take roles that do not perpetuate Asian stereotypes. Cho said he refused a request to do an Asian accent for Big Fat Liar, writing, "I don't want to do this role in a kid's comedy, with an accent, because I don't want young people laughing at an accent inadvertently". In a 2015 tweet, he said, "Stop turning Asian roles white. It's bullshit and we all know it." He described his casting in Selfie, which made him the first Asian to play a romantic lead on a U.S. romantic comedy television series, as being "revolutionary" and a "personal revolution". He said, "Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop, or waitress, or whatever it is. You see them in the background. So to be in this position...is bit of a landmark".
In 2016, Cho was the face of the "#StarringJohnCho" social movement and hashtag campaign, a bid to call attention to the lack of opportunities for Asian American actors in Hollywood. Created by William Yu, it Photoshopped Cho's face onto existing movie posters as the male lead. This created a domino effect: it inspired director Jon M. Chu to create the film adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians and that film's success inspired Ke Huy Quan to return to acting in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Cho supported the 2012 re-election campaign of Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama. He supported the Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Cho also supported the 2024 election campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Filmography
Audiobooks
Troublemaker (2022) - author and narrator
Drop Dead (2024) - narrator
Discography
Band: Left of Zed
Demo tape (1998)
Album: Furious Bloom (2004)
Band: Viva La Union
Album: Viva La Union (2009)
