Chris Tashima

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Chris Tashima

Born Christopher Inadomi Tashima
March 24, 1960 (1960-03-24) (age 48)
Cambridge, MA, U.S.
Official website

Chris Tashima (born in 1960, in Cambridge, MA) is an American actor and director. He is a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American). He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and co-Artistic Director of its Asian American theatre company, Cedar Grove OnStage. He is the son of U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima.[1] He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

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[edit] Personal

Tashima was born on the East Coast, while his father attended Harvard Law School, but grew up in California.[2] He lived in Pasadena, where he began Suzuki Method 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 (College V), where he studied film production. He also attended UCLA, and took additional filmmaking courses at Visual Communications (VC). He started his acting career at East West Players in 1985.

[edit] Actor

Tashima stars as the romantic lead opposite Joan Chen in Eric Byler's Americanese, a 2008 release from IFC First Take.[3] The film won two awards after its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, including a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast.[4] He has also appeared in Sherwood Hu's Lani Loa - The Passage (1998) with Angus Macfadyen, and Rea Tajiri's Strawberry Fields (1997) with Suzy Nakamura. He starred opposite Tamlyn Tomita in the 1995 AFI short, Requiem, directed by actress Elizabeth Sung.

His stage credits include originating roles in Chay Yew’s A Language of Their Own (LA Weekly Theater Award for Ensemble Performance, shared with Noel Alumit, Anthony David and Dennis Dun) at the Celebration Theatre, Laurence Yep's Dragonwings at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (reprised at Seattle Children's Theatre, Alliance Theatre Company, in Atlanta, and Syracuse Stage), Tim Toyama's Visas and Virtue, at the Road Theatre Company, and Wakako Yamauchi's The Memento at East West Players.

[edit] Director

Tashima won an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film with producer Chris Donahue, for Visas and Virtue (1997),[5] 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.

More recently, he directed, co-wrote and acted in Day of Independence (2003), a half-hour television special for PBS, produced by Lisa Onodera, which received a Regional Emmy Nomination from the NATAS San Francisco/Northern California Chapter, in the category of Historical/Cultural — Program/Special.[6]

His stage directing credits include several shows with the Grateful Crane Ensemble, most recently the world premiere of Soji Kashiwagi's Nihonmachi: The Place To Be, presented in San Francisco in 2006.[7]

[edit] Professional

Tashima is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, and belongs to the Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Actors' Equity Association. He is an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

He is also a stage set designer. He won a 1995 Ovation Award for Best Set Design in a Smaller Theater, for Sweeney Todd, and a 1992 Drama-Logue Award for Scenic Design (shared with Christopher Komuro) for Into The Woods, both at East West Players.[8]

Tashima served as producer 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 comedy was presented at the InnerCity Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and received a nomination for an LA Weekly Theater Award, for "Production of the Year."

[edit] Community

Honors:

  • "Japanese American of the Biennium" (shared with Toyama) – Presented by National JACL[9]
  • "Bridge Builder" Asian American Leadership Award – Presented by A Magazine, New York, NY[10]
  • Humanitarian Award – Presented by The "1939" Club, Los Angeles CA[11]
  • Visionary Award (on behalf of Cedar Grove Productions) – Presented by East West Players, Los Angeles CA[12]
  • 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

[edit] References

  1. ^ Conference review by Greg Robinson on IsThatLegal.org - 11/9/04
  2. ^ Tashima answers "Where were you born and raised?" in Dennis Amith interview on AsianConnections.com
  3. ^ Americanese acquired by IFC on IndieWire
  4. ^ AMERICANese wins at SXSW on IndieWire
  5. ^ 70th Oscars winners on IndieWire
  6. ^ list of 35th NorCal Emmy noms; p. 9 (pdf)
  7. ^ Nihonmachi feature on DiscoverNikkei.org 7/25/06
  8. ^ Awards history on EWP
  9. ^ Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL newsletter, 7/06; Nat'l Convention report; p. 3 (pdf)
  10. ^ Dennis Amith asks Tashima, "... you were a recipient of the A. Magazine 'Asian American Leadership Award.' How was that experience ...?" on AsianConnections.com
  11. ^ The "1939" Club history
  12. ^ repost from Back Stage West, 6/18/98; EWP 32nd Anniversary Awards

[edit] External links

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