Reggie Lee (actor)

Reggie Lee
Reggie Lee in 2007
Born Reggie Valdez
October 4, 1975 (1975-10-04) (age 43)[1]
Quezon City, Philippines
Education Padua Franciscan High School
Occupation Actor

Reggie Telmo Valdez (born October 4, 1975), known professionally as Reggie Lee, is a Filipino-American[2] film, stage and television actor. He has played William "Bill" Kim on the show Prison Break and Sergeant Drew Wu on Grimm. In film, he has appeared as Tai Huang in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Officer Ross in The Dark Knight Rises and Lance Nguyen in The Fast and the Furious.

Early life

Valdez was born in Quezon City, Philippines,[2] to Zenaida Telmo and Jesus Espiritu Valdez.[3] Although fluent in English, he also speaks Tagalog. At the age of five, he moved with his family to the Cleveland, Ohio area, including Parma and Strongsville. While still a student, he performed in shows at the Greenbrier Theatre (now the Cassidy Theatre) in Parma Heights and was an intern at the Cleveland Play House. He graduated from Padua Franciscan High School in Parma.[4]

Although accepted to Harvard, he instead decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting.[5] He later changed his last name from Valdez to Lee, stating in a 2001 interview that "they kept calling me in for Hispanic roles, and I'm a far cry from Hispanic";[4] he took the name Lee from his grandparents.[1]

Career

In 1992, at the age of 17, he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined a national tour of Miss Saigon.[1] He followed that with work as a dancer for Prince on the MTV Video Music Awards and toured nationally with the musical Heartstrings.[1] He was in the original company of the 1994 Broadway revival of Carousel.[1] In 1997, he received a Dramalogue Critics Award for his performance in F.O.B. at East West Players, an Asian-American theatre organization in Los Angeles.[1] With his critical acclaim, Lee also starred in their production of Carry the Tiger to the Mountain.[1]

Since starring as Lance Nguyen—the snakeskin-wearing, motorcycle-riding, cold-blooded killer—in the 2001 Universal film The Fast and the Furious, Lee also appeared as Tai Huang in the Walt Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. He has played Secret Service Special Agent Bill Kim in the FOX drama Prison Break, a character he describes as "a guilty pleasure to play, wonderfully complex and devious". He also appeared in the independent feature film Chinaman's Chance (2008), about which he said "It's an important story that definitely needs to be told and humanized. Plus I get to play pretend in the Old West. How great is that?"[6]

In 2010, he played the role of Tom in the NBC television series Persons Unknown.

In 2012, Reggie portrayed the heroic Gotham City police officer Ross who is mercilessly gunned down by one of Bane's thugs in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.

From 2011 to 2017, he played Sergeant Wu in the NBC supernatural/police drama Grimm.

For the 2018 season of the series NCIS: New Orleans, Lee appears in the recurring role of Assistant Special Agent in Charge Steven Thompson[7]. Lee previously appeared in an unrelated role in a 2008 episode of NCIS.

Personal life

Lee has two younger brothers, musician Nathan and comic book artist R.V. Valdez.[4][8]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1999 The Big Blind
2000 Southstreet Lullaby Mahler Greeter
2000 Psycho Beach Party Dancer
2000 Drift Ryan As R.T. Lee
2001 XCU: Extreme Close Up Nuey Phan
2001 The Fast and the Furious Lance Nguyen
2001 The Parlor Slappy Sue
2002 Black Hole Justin
2002 Reality School Student
2002 The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest Suit
2003 Masked and Anonymous Armed Man
2003 Net Games Laurence
2004 Frankenfish Anton
2005 Amateur Ron Harper
2006 Dimples Dr. Ross Hammer
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Hadras
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Tai Huang
2008 I Am Somebody: No Chance in Hell Sing Also known as Chinaman's Chance
2008 Tropic Thunder Byong
2009 Drag Me to Hell Stu Rubin
2009 Star Trek Test Administrator Maru Kobayashi
2010 Life as We Know It Alan Burke
2011 Crazy, Stupid, Love Agent Huang
2012 Safe Quan Chang
2012 Here Comes the Boom Mr. De La Cruz
2012 The Dark Knight Rises GCPD Officer Ross

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 Diagnosis: Murder Kim Ho Episode: "The ABC's of Murder"
1997 Dangerous Minds Student Episode: "Teach, Don't Touch"
1997 Moloney Ramon Episode: "Loves and Lost"
1997 The Journey of Allen Strange Zero Unknown episodes
1998 Babylon 5 Chen Hikaru Episode: "The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father"
1998 The Wayans Bros. Reporter #2 Episode: "Pops' Campaign"
1998 ER Christian Episode: "Split Second"
1998 Sister, Sister Lawson Hicks Episode: "We Are Family"
1998 Hyperion Bay Lives-on-Pizza Episode: "Family Business"
1998 Mad About You Gardner's Assistant Episode: "Weekend in L.A."
1998 Seven Days Duncan Episode: "Shadow Play"
1999 Beverly Hills, 90210 Richard Episode: "The Following Options"
1999 Two of a Kind Waiter Episode: "When a Man Loves a Woman"
1999 Sons of Thunder Bad Guy Episode: "Thunder by Your Side"
2000 Walker, Texas Ranger Chan Episode: "The General's Return"
2000 Chicago Hope Sam Episode: "Have I Got a Deal for You"
2001 The Ellen Show Kwan Episode: "Pilot"
2001–02 Judging Amy Dr. Oliver Lee 2 episodes
2001 Philly Brian Chin 2 episodes
2001–03 The Division Officer Jim Chang 4 episodes
2002 Strong Medicine Dr. Nakashima Episode: "House Calls"
2003 Luis Zhing Zhang 9 episodes
2005 Blind Justice Don Yun Episode: "Seoul Man"
2006 Night Stalker Stanley Kim Episode: "What's the Frequency, Colchak?"
2006–07 Prison Break William "Bill" Kim 16 episodes
2008 NCIS Jonathan Chow Episode: "Stakeout"
2010 No Ordinary Family Dr. Francis Chiles 5 episodes
2010 Persons Unknown Tom 7 episodes
2010, 2013 American Dad! Hideki Yoshida (voice) 2 episodes
2011 White Collar Ambassador Kyi Episode: "What Happens in Burma"
2011–17 Grimm Sgt. Drew Wu 120 episodes
2017 Hawaii Five-0 Joey Kang Episode: "E uhi wale no 'a'ole e nalo, he imu puhi"
2017 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Dr. Ronald Yee Episode: "Return To Skyfire"
2018 LA to Vegas Lewis Episode: "The Affair"
2018 NCIS: New Orleans Special Agent Steven Thompson Recurring role - Season 5

Video games

Year Title Role
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Tai Haung

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lo, Ricardo F. (May 23, 2007). "Reggie Lee: From Q.C. to Hollywood". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved April 23, 2012. That was 1992 and he was 18.
  2. 1 2 "The Filipino-American actor in 'Pirates 3' is from Quezon City". Manila Bulletin. June 16, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ Villagomez, Kaye (October 7, 2008). "Pinoy actor talks about breaking barriers in Hollywood". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Palmer, Debbie (September 13, 2001). "Actor passes up Harvard: Padua grad trades college for leading roles in TV series, movies". Cleveland Sun News. Archived from the original on December 30, 2001.
  5. ↑ "Reggie Lee".
  6. ↑ "The Filipino-American actor in 'Pirates 3' is from Quezon City". Manila Bulletin. June 16, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  7. ↑ Petski, Denise (20 August 2018). "'NCIS: New Orleans' Casts Reggie Lee; Samantha Sloyan Joins 'SEAL Team'". Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "About Me". RVValdez.com. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
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