Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18. He is best known for his roles as Mani in Brotherhood of the Wolf, Toby Wong in Drive, Ling in Cradle 2 the Grave, the titular role in Crying Freeman and Zero in '. Beginning in January 2005, Dacascos played "The Chairman" on Food Network's Iron Chef America. His other roles include Wo Fat on the CBS series Hawaii Five-0, Kung Lao in the web series ', Eric Draven in ' and Eubulon in '. He also competed in the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars.
Dacascos became an actor after being discovered walking down the street in San Francisco's Chinatown by Chris Lee and Rexall Chin for director Wayne Wang. Though his first scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, he went on to establish a film and television career primarily playing martial artists. He was originally set to play as the Red Ranger, Victor Lee, in Bio-Man produced by Haim Saban, which never got picked up but would later evolve into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. His breakout role was in the 1993 filmOnly the Strong, in which he played Louis, a capoeira master who takes a high school's potential failures and turns their lives around by teaching them the Brazilian martial art based on the West Africanmartial art brought by slaves. In the following year, Dacascos co-starred with Party of Fives Scott Wolf as Jimmy and Billy Lee, respectively, in the movie, based on the video game, Double Dragon. He plays the role of the Chairman of Iron Chef America and Iron Chef Australia. In the series' backstory he is the nephew of the original Iron Chef Chairman, Takeshi Kaga; the actors have no relation in real life. He has been featured in many action films such as Drive, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Crying Freeman and Cradle 2 the Grave, in which he squared off against Jet Li. He also performed in three video games: voice acting in Stranglehold, live acting in ' and digitally recreating The Chairman in the ' video game for Wii. Dacascos was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for his role in Brotherhood of the Wolf. He also appeared in the television series ', which was a follow-up to the 1994 film The Crow. He also appears in the children's television show, ', where he portrays Eubulon, also known as the Advent Master, mentor of the Kamen Riders and creator of the Advent Decks. Dacascos plays the recurring role of Wo Fat on the CBS series, Hawaii Five-0. He portrayed Kung Lao in the second season of the YouTube series '. He had a recurring role in the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Mr. Giyera, an Inhuman servant of Hydra who can manipulate inanimate objects. In May 2019, Dacascos played Zero, a lead antagonist in the action thriller film'. Recently, he starred in a recurring role on the Netflix series, Wu Assassins.
Personal life
Dacascos is married to actress Julie Condra, who starred with him in Crying Freeman. They have three children: two sons and a daughter. Mark has five siblings: two brothers and three sisters.
