Born Masiyori Oka in Tokyo, Japan on Dec. 27, 1974, Oka moved to Los Angeles at the age of six. A 1992 graduate of the city’s exclusive Harvard-Westlake preparatory school, Oka displayed an early passion for computers and seemed destined for a career in computer sciences. A highly cerebral youngster growing up, Oka appeared on the cover of a 1987 issue of Time magazine alongside a half-dozen other children for a feature entitled “Those Asian-American Whiz Kids.” While this honor may have seemed an obvious portent of his future success, Oka later admitted that his inclusion was nothing more than the result of coincidence – as it turned out, the only reason Oka made the cover was because the photographer was a family friend – indeed, Oka was not featured in the article. Still, considering his academic credentials and rumored 180 I.Q., a fair argument could probably have been made for his inclusion just the same.
After earning his B.S. in Computer Science from Brown University in 1997, Oka found himself awash in job offers. Turning down a cushy programming position at Microsoft, Oka accepted an entry level job at George Lucas’ famed visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in Marin County, California. After a grueling 18 months of training, Oka got his feet wet with some work on “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) and the effects-heavy live-action/animated comedy, “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” (2000). But Oka’s breakthrough came as a digital artist/programmer on Wolfgang Petersen’s shipwreck thriller, “The Perfect Storm” (2000). It was on that project that Oka (under the supervision of ILM visual effects maestro, John Anderson) created the breathtaking computer-generated water effects. Oka’s superlative work on “Storm” dramatically boosted the young programmer’s profile at ILM and led to further work on later films such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” (2006).
But clearly Oka was just getting started. In 2001, after two years in the ILM trenches, Oka made a fateful decision to move to Los Angeles to – what else? – start an acting career. After receiving his Screen Actors Guild card (which he earned by performing in a handful of industrial videos), Oka made the casting rounds. A string of successful auditions landed Oka some early bit parts on such popular series as “Scrubs (NBC, 2001-), “Reba” (WB, 2001- ) and “Without a Trace” (CBS, 2002- ), as well as film roles in “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde” (2003), “Along Came Polly”(2004) and “House of the Dead 2” (2005).
But it was not until 2006, when he won the role of Hiro Nakamura in the hot series “Heroes,” that Oka’s career went into overdrive. As the meek Japanese office drone who discovers one morning that he can teleport and alter the time-space continuum, Oka’s Hiro won the hearts of viewers with his childlike awe and indefatigable sense of wonder. One of the first and only characters on “Heroes” to embrace his newfound powers, Oka tapped into his inner comic-book geek – even among those “too cool” to read comic books. While the majority of Hiro’s lines were in Japanese, fans caught a glimpse of an older, cooler and sexier Hiro – who spoke fluent English and sported a ponytail (actually a future-version of the character) – in later episodes. A radical departure from his customary Asian whiz kid persona, this tough, future incarnation of Hiro allowed Oka to demonstrate a greater range as an actor than audiences could have expected.
Much like the ever-dedicated, overachieving employee that he played on television, Oka continued to hold down his programming job at ILM, even as he was becoming a star. Working remotely from Los Angeles, Oka remained active with movie effects, allocating one to two days a week between his “Heroes” production schedule. Said Oka in a 2006 interview with Wired magazine: "I love both acting and programming equally… I think it enriches me and enhances me as an artist. I have a lot of appreciation for what people do in front of the camera as well as behind the camera. I don't think I could like one without the other.” His love of acting may have been bumped up a notch or two above programming when Oka learned that he was nominated for his first-ever Emmy award, getting the nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.