Brian Tochi
In Biographical Summaries of Notable People
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Brian Tochi
In Biographical Summaries of Notable People
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| Name | Brian Tochi |
| Gender | Male |
| Aliases | Brian Keith Tochi, B. K. Tochi, Brian Keith Tochihara |
| Description | Brian Keith Tochi (born May 2, 1963 in Los Angeles, California), better known as Brian Tochi, is an American actor, screenwriter, movie director and producer. He was widely recognized as the most popular Asian American child actor working in television during the late 1960s through much of the 1970s having appeared in various TV series and nearly 100 television commercials. He is best known for his more famous characters Takashi from the Revenge of the Nerds film franchise, as Cadet (later Officer) Elvis Nogata from the third and fourth films in the Police Academy film series, and as the voice of Leonardo in the first three live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie franchise. Tochi was born Brian Keith Tochihara in Los Angeles, California, the son of Joe Isao Tochihara (a/k/a ‘Tochi’), a well known Beverly Hills celebrity hair salon owner, and Jane Yaeko (née Harada), both of Japanese American decent, and former detainees (along with thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans) of Japanese American Internment camps during World War II. While Brian was still young, the family moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, California, where he divided his education between local public schools and studio tutors (for child actors) on movie studio lots. After graduation from high school, Tochi also attended USC, UCLA and UCI. Of Asian ancestry, Tochi frequently plays characters who are Japanese, Chinese, or of other Asiatic origin, adopting the appropriate accent as needed. (His primary language is English, and his offstage speech is "fluent American".) Early in his professional life, being one of the only Asian faces in television, many credit him with breaking the barriers and opening doors for Asians in entertainment, and advancing the perception that “Oriental” actors have the ability to portray more “mainstream” roles. Brian’s introduction into the entertainment industry came as a toddler. His father’s beauty salon, Tochi Coiffure of Beverly Hills... |
| Birth |
May 2 1963
Los Angeles |
| Nationality | United States of America |
| Occupations | Journalist, Screenwriter, Actor, Voice Actor, Film director, Film Producer |
| Education |
University of Southern California |
Relatives
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