Justin Chon

Early life

Chon was born in Garden Grove, California, and raised in Irvine, California, where he attended University High School. Chon is of Korean descent. His father, Sang Chon, was an actor in South Korea and later a shoe wholesales owner in Paramount, California. His mother is a pianist. He has a younger sister.

Chon attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he majored in business. During college, he studied abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Career

Acting

Chon started acting in 2005 in shows such as Jack & Bobby and Taki & Luci. He came to fame in 2006 when he played Peter Wu in the Disney Channel film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. He also played Tony Lee in the Nickelodeon sitcom Just Jordan. In 2008, he played Eric Yorkie in the film Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer. Chon reprised his role as Eric Yorkie in the Twilight sequel New Moon. He starred as the central character Jeff Chang, in the film 21 & Over in 2013. He also appeared in the independent film Innocent Blood that same year.

In 2014, Chon appeared as a lead character in crime drama film Revenge of the Green Dragons, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. In 2015, Chon starred as Sid Park, the trouble-making main character influenced by rocker culture in the independent film Seoul Searching, directed by Benson Lee, which made its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Chon trained for over two years in the Meisner technique at the Baron Brown Studio in Santa Monica and guest starred in the Studio web series Joanne Brown Is Here with Hana Mae Lee and Joanne Baron in 2016. Chon also held a role in the Korean-American comedy drama Dramaworld. In March 2017, he was cast as a series regular in the ABC crime drama Deception.

Chon starred in the 2018 movie High Resolution with Ellie Bamber, directed by Jason Lester. The movie was based on the acclaimed novel Taipei by author Tao Lin.

Directing

Chon also co-wrote (with Kevin Wu), directed, executive produced, and starred in the 2015 feature film Man Up. The film made its premiere at the 2015 CAAMFest. It was also screened at the 2015 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, making its West Coast premiere there. The film is set in Hawaii and also stars Kevin Wu, Amy Hill, Parvesh Cheena, Nichole Bloom, Dion Basco, Samantha Futerman and more. In March 2015, the film was acquired by "Off the Dock", a digital studio owned by Lakeshore Entertainment.

Chon has also directed several digital short films that are viewable on his YouTube Channel, including You're Stoopid (2013), Full Circle (2013) and 90 Day Visa (2015).

In 2017, Chon wrote, directed, produced and starred in a film entitled Gook, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Audience Award and was picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Distribution. The film also won Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature Film, Best Director (Justin Chon), Best Actress (Simone Baker), and an Audience Award at the 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The film further won Golden Space Needle Awards for Best Director (2nd Place or 1st Runner-Up) (Justin Chon) and Best Actress (5th Place) (Simone Baker) at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival.

He contributed to directing the first two episodes of Chief of War, a period drama miniseries for Apple TV+ starred and executively produced by Jason Momoa.

Other ventures

Chon co-owns a chain of clothing stores, named the Attic, in California.

In January 2015, he began uploading edited vlogs to his YouTube channel on a weekly basis. Since November 2015, he has uploaded edited vlogs to the channel on a daily basis. He also creates short comedy videos on YouTube with his friends, and has appeared in videos on Ryan Higa (nigahiga)'s YouTube channel. Chon is also a member of BgA (Boys Generally Asian), a parody K-Pop group formed by Higa. The five-member group has released two singles and has risen up many South Korean music charts as well as American music charts.

In 2016, Chon wrote an editorial for NBC about the racism he faced in Hollywood roles and auditions.

Personal life

After dating for over a year, he married Sasha Egorova in October 2014. Their first child, a girl was born in December 2017. Their second child, a boy was born June 2023.

Filmography

Film

Directorial work

Television

Accolades

References

References

1. Mike Rose, cleveland com. (2023-05-29). "Famous birthdays list for May 29, 2023 includes celebrities Rupert Everett, Danny Elfman".
2. Morreale, Marie. "Star Spotlight: Justin Chon".
3. Sun, Rebecca. (April 29, 2017). "'Gook' Director Justin Chon Reflects on L.A. Riots: "In '92, Everybody Was Angry"". The Hollywood Reporter.
4. Yuan, Jada. (August 25, 2017). "From Twilight to Gook: How Justin Chon Found His Voice in His Own Painful Past". Vulture.
5. General, Ryan. (March 27, 2017). "Ryan Higa and Friends Create K-Pop Group as a Joke, Gets #1 Hit on K-Pop Charts".
6. Koltnow, Barry. (March 1, 2013). "Irvine actor drinks in possibility of stardom". Orange County Register.
7. Tseng, Ada. (January 19, 2017). "Justin Chon seeks to fill a hole in the history of the Los Angeles riots". Public Radio International.
8. "Justin Chon {{!}} Deception".
9. (September 4, 2019). "Irvine's Justin Chon explores Korean-American life in LA with new movie, 'Ms. Purple'".
10. Conran, Pierce. (February 6, 2017). "GOOK Nabs NEXT Audience Award at Sundance". Korean Film Council.
11. Larry Carroll. (February 7, 2008). "'Twilight' Gives The Green Light To Anna Kendrick, Justin Chon For Book-Turned-Movie". MTV.
12. (April 11, 2009). "New Moon Actors arrived in Vancouver". ReelzChannel.
13. James S. Kim, Justin Chon Does His Own 'Seoul Searching', http://iamkoream.com/justin-chon-does-his-own-seoul-searching/ {{Webarchive. link. (May 7, 2015)
14. Petski, Denise. (March 1, 2017). "Elliot Knight Joins The CW's 'Life Sentence'; Justin Chon in ABC's 'Deception'". Deadline.
15. Cynthia Brothers & Vu-Bang Nguyen, [http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2015/02/26/justin-chon-on-seoul-searching-and-manning-up/ Justin Chon on 'Seoul Searching' and 'Man Up'].
16. CAAMFest, Man Up, http://caamfest.com/2015/films/man-up/ {{Webarchive. link. (May 17, 2015)
17. "MAN UP - 2015 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival".
18. Man Up, Official Film Page, http://www.manupfilm.com
19. McNary, Dave. (2015-03-26). "Lakeshore Launches Digital Studio With Justin Chon-Kevin Wu Comedy".
20. ChannelAPA.com, Full Circle, http://www.channelapa.com/2013/02/full-circle-short-film-with-justin-chon.html
21. McNary, Dave. (2017-04-19). "Sundance Next Audience Award Winner 'Gook' Picked Up by Samuel Goldwyn".
22. "2017 LAAPFF Jury Winners and Audience Award Winners Announced!".
23. Knapp, J. D.. (2017-06-11). "Seattle International Film Festival: 'Sami Blood,' 'At the End of the Tunnel' Come Out on Top".
24. Otterson, Joe. (April 14, 2022). "Jason Momoa Apple Series 'Chief of War' Sets 'Pachinko's' Justin Chon to Direct (EXCLUSIVE)".
25. AllKPop, Up in Justin Chon's Attic, http://www.allkpop.com/article/2009/04/up-in-justin-chons-attic
26. Chon, Justin. (March 15, 2016). "Editorial: I Walked Out On a Racist Audition". NBCNews.com.
27. Justin Chon. (January 1, 2015). "i got married...".
28. Justin Chon. (December 31, 2017). "Instagram snapshot".
29. Galuppo, Mia. (April 18, 2023). "'Blue Bayou' Filmmaker Justin Chon, SB Projects Sets Movie About Zappos Founder Tony Hsieh (Exclusive)".
30. Guy, Zoe. (December 8, 2022). "Cat Person Has a Date at Sundance Film Festival 2023".
31. Voyles, Blake. (September 14, 2023). "83rd Peabody Award Winners".