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Brian Tee

Brian Tee has built a screen career around characters who carry authority, danger or both. Whether playing a street-racing antagonist, a physician or a comic-book villain, he brings a controlled intensity that can shift easily between action movies and long-running television drama. Born Jae-Beom Takata on March 15, 1977, in Okinawa, Tee moved to California at the age of two and was raised in Hacienda Heights. He later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in theater and performing arts. Early in his career, he adopted the stage name Brian Tee after a Korean director rejected him at an audition because of his Japanese last name. For many moviegoers, Tee remains closely associated with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he played Takashi, better known as D.K., the “Drift King.” The role gave him a memorable place in the Fast & Furious series as an antagonist whose confidence and status shape the film’s racing world. His other action and franchise work includes Noburo Mori in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, ACU commander Hamada in Jurassic World and Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. He also played Liu Kang in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Television has allowed Tee to show a different kind of steadiness. After earlier appearances in series including Zoey 101, Bones, Grimm and Burn Notice, he joined Chicago Med as Dr. Ethan Choi. Tee remained with the medical drama for eight seasons, giving him one of the defining roles of his career. He later became a series regular in the third season of Reacher, playing Francis Xavier Quinn, also known as Julius McCabe, a corrupt former military intelligence officer and arms dealer tied to Reacher’s past. Across those roles, Tee has proved especially effective when a character needs to command the room before the action even starts.