Brian Tochi

Brian Tochi
Tochi on set of King of the Nerds in August 2013
Born	Brian Keith Tochihara Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968–present

Brian Tochi (born Brian Keith Tochihara) is an American actor. During the late 1960s through much of the 1970s and 1980's, he was one of the most widely seen East Asian child actors working in U.S. television, appearing in various TV series and nearly a hundred advertisements. He is recognized around the world for starring in some of the most popular film franchises of all time, and best known for his characters Toshiro Takashi from the Revenge of the Nerds film franchise, Cadet (later Lieutenant) Tomoko Nogata from the third and fourth films in the Police Academy film series, and as the iconic voice of Leonardo in the first three live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. He is also known as Brian Keith Tochi.

Early life

Tochi was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Joe Isao Tochihara (A.K.A. ‘Tochi’), a Beverly Hills celebrity hair salon owner, and Jane Yaeko (née Harada), both Japanese, and both of whom were forcibly interned during World War II. While Tochi was still young, the family moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, California, where he divided his education between local public schools and studio tutors (for child actors) on movie studio lots. After graduation from high school, Tochi also attended U.S.C., UCLA, and U.C.I.

Tochi’s introduction into the entertainment industry came as a toddler. His father’s beauty salon, Tochi Coiffure of Beverly Hills, was a popular haunt for many famous clients, including Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Petula Clark and Patty Duke. One of his father’s customers, a top child agent, spotted the young Tochi running around the salon, and quickly signed to represent him.

Being of Japanese descent, Tochi has frequently played characters who are Japanese, Chinese, or of other East Asian genes, adopting the appropriate accent as needed. (His primary language is English, and his off-stage speech is "fluent American".)

Career

As a child actor

A beginning role for Tochi was a guest-starring appearance in the short-lived television series He & She (1967–68, with Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) as their newly adopted son. Produced by Leonard Stern and cowritten by Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, it also starred Jack Cassidy as an egomaniacal actor, Kenneth Mars, and Hamilton Camp.

That same year saw Tochi appearing in "And the Children Shall Lead", a third-season episode of Star Trek. Other roles followed, including guest appearances on such popular shows as The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family and Adam-12.

Tochi's debut as a series regular was as Yul Brynner's oldest son and heir Crown Prince Chulalongkorn in Anna and the King on CBS. It was based on the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and also starred Samantha Eggar and Keye Luke. Although the series was short-lived, Tochi and Brynner remained friends until Brynner's death in 1985.

Concurrent with the series, Tochi was cast with fellow actor Luke in his first animated television series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Also in the series was a young Jodie Foster, who voiced one of the Chan sisters.

After both series ended, guest-starring roles followed, including The Streets of San Francisco with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, and Kung Fu with David Carradine, who made his directing debut on the episode, "The Demon God," which was Tochi's largest guest role of three Kung Fu episodes he appeared in.

Tochi also played an undercover informant who was beaten and killed in a gritty two-part episode of Police Story on NBC. He played another character that nearly died on the Robert Young medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D..

Young adulthood in theater

During the mid-1970s, Tochi spent time in the theatre, this time reprising his role as Crown Prince Chulalongkorn in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera's revival of the musical The King and I at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. There he co-starred with actor Ricardo Montalbán, as the King of Siam, to which they would later accompany the show as it went on tour.

Return to television

Tochi returned to star in another TV series Space Academy (1977–1979) with veteran actor Jonathan Harris (best remembered as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space). Up until that time, Space Academy was the most expensive Saturday morning television series in broadcast history. His character, Tee Gar Soom, had super-strength and continued the martial arts traditions of his Asian ancestors. During hiatus of the show, Tochi was asked to shoot a 20-minute promotional "behind-the-scenes" visit to the Space Academy for a popular daytime series, Razzmatazz, on CBS. Razzmatazz was a highly regarded news magazine show created by 60 Minutes wizard Don Hewitt and produced by Joel Heller with the same production team as CBS's In The News the long-running Saturday morning news programs for children. Razzmatazz originally starred Barry Bostwick, who opted to leave the show for a career in features, to capitalize on his recently released cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Searching for a new host, the television network persuaded Tochi to accept their offer of his own daytime show, which aired on the network for 4 more years into the early 1980s.

Other appearances include a guest stint on Wonder Woman, a recurring character in the tropically set Hawaii Five-O, starring actor Jack Lord, a two-hour television film We're Fighting Back (with Ellen Barkin and Stephen Lang), and regular television roles in the TV dramas St. Elsewhere and Santa Barbara. He later played a featured character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Night Terrors" (making him one of only a handful of living actors to have appeared on the original Star Trek series and a subsequent spin-off). Tochi also appeared as the titular character in "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium," the ninth episode from the first season of the television series The Twilight Zone. The episode is based on the short story "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" by William F. Wu, first published in Amazing Stories in 1983. This episode was stretched into a half-hour run time for syndication, as recently shown on the Chiller TV network.

In the short lived ABC TV series The Renegades, he starred with his friend, Patrick Swayze, as the martial arts expert and former gang leader known as Dragon. Then, exercising his journalistic prowess, Tochi later became part of the core team that created and developed the cutting edge educational news program Channel One News. During his two-and-a-half-year association, his responsibilities grew to include Hosting and Narrating duties, utilizing his talents as a writer, producer and segment director. He was later named Chief Foreign correspondent for the show.

Other work

In 2004, Tochi co-wrote, produced and directed Tales of a Fly on the Wall, a scripted, live-action comedy, casting several of his friends in lead roles; it included fellow actors Roscoe Lee Browne, his Revenge of the Nerds co-star Curtis Armstrong and his Police Academy 3: Back in Training co-star Leslie Easterbrook. In 2005, he was one of the winners of the Hollywood Film Festival's Hollywood Screenplay Awards, taking home top honors for co-writing the screenplay "In the Heat of the Light". He continues with his directing, producing, and screenwriting careers.

Tochi has also provided voices for numerous animated films, computer games and animated cartoon series, including the Bionic Six (all 65 episodes), Challenge of the GoBots, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (as its main star Liu Kang). He performed the voice of Leonardo in the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films in the early 1990s. He also is the voice of the Chinese soldier who runs the Great Wall in Disney's Mulan, and had recurring roles in Batman Beyond, As Told by Ginger, Kim Possible, Johnny Bravo, Static Shock, Family Guy and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Filmography

Film

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	The Omega Man	Tommy
1980	The Octagon	Seikura at Eighteen
1984	Revenge of the Nerds	Takashi
1985	Stitches	Sam Boon Tong
1986	Police Academy 3: Back in Training	Cadet Tomoko Nogata
1987	Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol	Officer Tomoko Nogata
1989	One Man Force	Stockbroker
1990	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Leonardo	Voice
1991	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
1992	The Player	Himself
1992	Aladdin	Arabian Villagers	Voice, uncredited
1993	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III	Leonardo	Voice
1994	The Lion King	Fighting Hyena	Voice, uncredited
1995	Pocahontas	Ship Captain	Voice, uncredited
1995	Toy Story	Green Army Men	Voice, uncredited
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	Frollo's Soldiers, Horse, Villagers	Voice, uncredited
1997	Cats Don't Dance	Reporters	Voice, uncredited
1997	Hercules	Greek Citizen, Scrawny Builder	Voice, uncredited
1997	Fathers' Day	Concert Security Chief	Uncredited
1997	Starship Troopers	Male Trooper	Uncredited
1997	Critics and Other Freaks	Asian Boy
1998	Mulan	Ancestors, Hun Army	Voice, uncredited
1998	A Bug's Life	Male Ants	Voice, uncredited
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Rameses's Soldiers	Voice, uncredited
1999	The King and I	Soldier	Voice
1999	Tarzan	Elephant	Voice, uncredited
1999	The Iron Giant	Bob the Soldier, additional voices
1999	Fight Club	Fight Bully	Uncredited
1999	Toy Story 2	Baggage Handler #1	Voice, uncredited
2000	The Emperor's New Groove	Villagers	Voice, uncredited
2001	The Boys of Sunset Ridge	Charlie Watanabe at 33
2001	The Silent Force	Kim Pao
2001	Shaolin Soccer	Mighty Steel Leg Sing	Voice, English dub
2002	Treasure Planet	Male Alien	Voice, uncredited
2004	Mulan II	Palace Advisor	Voice
2004	Home on the Range	Cowboys	Voice, uncredited
2004	Shrek 2	Guards	ADR Group
2004	The Incredibles	Firefighters, Snug Porter	Uncredited
2005	Madagascar	Crowd Member	ADR Group
2005	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	Additional voices	Uncredited
2005	Chicken Little	Male Dog #3	Voice, uncredited
2006	Curious George	Zoo Animals	Voice, uncredited
2006	Cars	Various Reporters	Voice, uncredited
2008	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Makani	Uncredited
2009	I Do	Peacher
2023	Urkel Saves Santa: the Movie	Mr. Kochiyama	Voice, Direct-to-Video

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	He & She	Kim	Episode: "Along Came Kim"
1968	Star Trek: The Original Series	Ray	Episode: "And the Children Shall Lead"
1970	The Brady Bunch	Tommy	Episode: "What Goes Up..."
1971	The Bold Ones: The New Doctors	Chin Johnson	Episode: "One Lonely Step"
1971	The Partridge Family	Young Boy	Episode: "A Tale of Two Hamsters"
1971	Nanny and the Professor	Jimmy Okura	Episode: "One for the Road"
1971	Adam-12	Flower Boy	Episode: "Assassination"
1971, 1976	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Larry, Max Redding	Episodes: "This Is Mac", "Strike Two!"
1972	The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan	Alan Chan	Voice, 14 episodes
1972	Anna and the King	Prince Chulalongkorn	13 episodes
1973	The Streets of San Francisco	Davey	Episode: "Trail of the Serpent"
1973–1974	Kung Fu	Ho Fong, Shen Ung	3 episodes
1975	Police Story	Louis Han	2 episodes
1977	Space Academy	Tee Gar	15 episodes
1978	Project U.F.O.	Student	Episode: "Sighting 4006: The Nevada Desert Incident"
1978	Wonder Woman	Darrell	Episode: "The Deadly Dolphin"
1978–1979	Hawaii Five-O	Joey Lee	3 episodes
1979	Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo	Additional voices	1 episode
1981	We're Fighting Back	Ling	Television film
1983	The Renegades	Dragon	6 episodes
1984	The Master	Jonathan Chan	Episode: "Out-if-Time-Step"
1984	Challenge of the GoBots	Additional voices	1 episode
1984	St. Elsewhere	Dr. Alan Poe	Episode: "Playing God: Part 1"
1985	CBS Storybreak	Unknown role	Voice, episode "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China"
1985	The Twilight Zone	David Wong	Episode: "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium"
1987	Bionic Six	Karate-1, Bunjiro 'Bunji' Bennett / Rivet Rick	Voice, 65 episodes
1988	Santa Barbara	Kai	26 episodes
1989	The Karate Kid	Additional voices	Episode: "My Brother's Keeper"
1991	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Ensign Kenny Lin	Episode: "Night Terrors"
1992	Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation	Takashi	Television film
1993	Bonkers	Unknown role	Voice, episode: "Tokyo Bonkers"
1993	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Yoku	Voice, episode: "White Belt, Black Heart"
1994	Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love	Takashi	Television film
1994	Aladdin	Zhin Lao, Zhang Lao	Episode: "Opposites Detract"
1995	Captain Planet and the Planeteers	Li	Voice, episode: "In Zarm's Way"
1995	Vanishing Son	Ricky	Episode: "Lock and Load, Babe"
1995	The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries	Sushi Master	Voice, episode: "Something Fishy Around Here"
1995	Diagnosis Murder	Eddie Lok	Episode: "Murder in the Courthouse"
1995–1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Turtle Photographer, Tsui, Prince, The Tailer	Voice, 3 episodes
1996	Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm	Liu Kang	Voice, 13 episodes
1996–1997	The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest	Professor Ken Otsuki, Techi #1, Terrorist Pilo	Voice, 2 episodes
1997	Bruno the Kid	Unknown role	Voice, episode: "Book'em Bruno, Murder One"
1998	Dexter's Laboratory	Toshi, Japanese Dad, Japanese Boy #1	Voice, episode: "Last But Not Least"
1999	Batman Beyond	Albino	Voice, episode: "Mind Games"
2000	The Weekenders	Hiro	Voice, episode: "Sense and Sensitivity"
2000–2001	Johnny Bravo	Master Hama, Karate Girl	Voice, 4 episodes
2000–2004	Static Shock	Shiv	Voice, 7 episodes
2002	Samurai Jack	Kid B, Boy	Voice, episode: "Jack's Shoes"
2002	The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy	Chief, Chef, Announcer	Voice, 2 episodes
2002–2003	What's New, Scooby-Doo?	J.J Hakimoto	Voice, 2 episodes
2003	Kim Possible	Hirotaka	Episode: "Exchange"
2003	Codename: Kids Next Door	Cheese Ninj, Leader	Voice, 2 episodes
2005	Family Guy	Asian Police Pilot	Voice, episode: "Breaking Out Is Hard to Do"
2005	All Grown Up!	Tourist Kid #2	Voice, episode: "R.V. Having Fun Yet"
2006	Duck Dodgers	The Whoosh	Voice, episode: "Master & Disaster/All in the Crime Family"
2006	As Told By Ginger	Mr. Briggs, Shop Keeper	Voice, episode: "Stuff'll Kill Ya"
2006–2008	Avatar: The Last Airbender	Ham Ghao, Than	Voice, 3 episodes
2014	Under the Table	Himself	2 episodes
2014	The Bay	Dr. Kim	Episode: "1.15"

Video games

Video games
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Xenogears	Fei Fong Wong	English dub
2002	EOE: Eve of Extinction	Venom, Raven	English dub
2002	Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon	Additional voices
2003	True Crime: Streets of LA	Kang Brother, Additional voices
2004	World of Warcraft	Additional voices
2005	Area 51	Additional voices
2008	Jumper: Griffin's Story	Paladin, Guard #1, Soldier #1
2008	Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	Imperial Ore Collector, Imperial Nanocore
2008	Saints Row 2	Unknown role
2012	The Darkness II	Inugami, Additional voices
2012	World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria	Unknown role

External links

• Brian Tochi at IMDb