Chris Tashima

Chris Tashima is an awardwinning American actor and director He has starred in numerous independent feature films most notably as the romantic lead opposite Joan Chen Allison Sie Kelly Hu and Autumn Reeser in Eric Bylers Americanese which won a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast at SXSW He was awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the inaugural Love International Film Festival for his portrayal of Papa Nakaji in Tim Savages World War II family drama Under the Blood Red Sun produced by Dana Satler Hankins He portrayed reallife educatoractivist Shigeo Yoshida in the 442nd RCT origin story Go For Broke from producerscreenwriter Stacey Hayashi Most recently he played the hardnosed Uncle Bob in the generational family comedy No No Girl from writerdirector Paul Daisuke Goodmanfor which he received two nominations at the Austin Revolution Film Festival and he plays Hiro in Brian M Tangs actionfantasy short Kodama receiving its world premiere at SXSW 2023 Tashima received an Academy Award for directing the dramatic short film Visas and Virtue a retelling of the heroic actions of Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara In addition he cowrote the screenplay adapting a oneact play by Tim Toyama and starred as the Humanitarian diplomat Sugihara He also directed cowrote and starred in the WWII Japanese American internment short film Day of Independence which was nominated for a NATAS Northern California Area Emmy These two directorial works came from Tashimas own Cedar Grove Productions an indie entertainment house aiming to Boldly defy mainstream Hollywood by giving Asian Americans the closeup onscreen