Masi Oka, by his full name Masayori Oka, is the actor behind fan's favorite Heroes character: Hiro Nakamura. But the two of them are more alike than you would imagine. He was born 31 years ago, in Tokyo, Japan, and immigrated in the United States with his family when he was six years old. In 1987, he has appeared on the cover of the Times magazine, in an issue about Asian-American whiz kids.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the Brown University and, before becoming an actor, Masi Oka has worked as a programmer, developing applications used by special effects artists. Some of these applications were used in the creation of famous titles, like Terminator 3 or Pirates of the Caribbean. Believe it or not, according to his bio on IMDB.com, he has an IQ of 150+!

One of his favorite hobbies is collecting comic books, similar to Hiro Nakamura, although in an interview for USAToday he admitted that Hiro is much more extreme in his passion. He also admitted he enjoys a lot playing World of Warcraft.

Career highlights

Until joining the Heroes crew, Oka has spent most of his career in comedy. His filmography includes titles like Dharma and Greg , The Gilmore Girls, Sabrina, the teenage witch, as guest appearance, or Uh-oh and House of the Dead 2: the Dead Aim .

But the peak of his career as an actor so far has to be the nomination for this year's Golden Globe best supporting actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, for the role of Hiro Nakamura in the NBC TV show, a japanese sci-fi geek who can bend the space-time continuum. The Heroes fans would be disappointed if he doesn't win that title and, personally, i think he would deserve it.

Tags: Masi, Oka, Hiro, Hiro Nakamura, Masi Oka, Heroes