Justin Chon

Early life

Chon was born in Garden Grove, California and raised in Irvine, California. He is of South Korean descent. His father, Sang, who worked in show business, was a child actor in South Korea, and was often in black-and-white films. Chon grew up watching his father's films, which eventually inspired him to pursue acting. His mother, Kyung, is a pianist and homemaker.

Chon was educated at University High School in his home city of Irvine in California, where he played saxophone in the marching band, followed by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he majored in Business Administration. As he was required to learn a language as a part of his course, he started learning Japanese, then switched to Korean (his parents' native tongue). In order to improve his ability in the language, he spent time in South Korea as part of a year abroad in his junior year. During the first semester, he lived in the dorms of Yonsei University, in the capital, Seoul.

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. In 2016, Chon held a role in the Korean American comedy drama Dramaworld. In March 2017, he was cast as a series regular in the upcoming television series Deception.

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.

Other ventures

Chon co-owns a chain of 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. He has appeared in videos on Nigahiga's YouTube channel. 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 his girlfriend Sasha Egorova in October 2014.