James Saito

James Saito
Education	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1976–present

James Saito is an American actor who is best known as the original Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dr. Chen in the ABC series Eli Stone, Joseph in The Company You Keep (TV series). His credits also feature Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe, Love Hard, Dash & Lily, and Altered Carbon, as well as Amazon’s Modern Love. His film work includes Life of Pi, Big Eyes, and The Thomas Crown Affair, alongside numerous other film and TV appearances. He is a member of Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Early life

Saito's parents are of Japanese descent. He graduated from Hamilton High in LA and the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in acting. He later studied acting with actress Uta Hagen at HB Studio, located in New York City. He was in the last group of students who studied with Sanford Meisner on the island of Bequia in the Grenadines and then continued with Meisner in North Hollywood.

Career

Saito launched his acting career in 1976 with the landmark television film Farewell to Manzanar.Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he became a familiar face on television, guest-starring in classic series such as , M*A*S*H, Hart to Hart ,The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series), The Greatest American Hero, MacGyver, and Miami Vice.

In 1990, Saito portrayed the iconic villain Shredder (Oroku Saki) in the original live-action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His film career expanded with roles films including Hot Dog... The Movie (1984), To Be the Best (1993) alongside Anthony Hopkins, Henry Fool (1997), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Home Alone 3 (1997), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and Pearl Harbor (2001). He later appeared in I Think I Love My Wife (2007), director Ang Lee's Academy Award-winning Life of Pi (2012), director Tim Burton's Big Eyes (2014), While We're Young (2015), and Wilson (2017).

On television, Saito appeared in procedural dramas and hit series including Law & Order, Sex and the City, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 30 Rock, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, House of Cards, The Deuce, Elementary, Iron Fist, Broad City, Grey's Anatomy, The Terror and Prodigal Son. He played Dr. Chen as a main cast member in the ABC series Eli Stone (2008–2009) and portrayed Tokugawa Ieyasu in the BBC docudrama series Heroes and Villains (2008).

As a stage actor, Saito received an Obie Award in 2007 for his performance in Julia Cho's play Durango at The Public Theater in New York City.

In recent years, Saito has starred in several streaming and network projects. He played Harry Kim in the popular Netflix romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe (2019), Kenji in the Amazon anthology series Modern Love (2019), and Latching in the Netflix miniseries Dash & Lily (2020), as well as appearing in Altered Carbon. In November 2021, he featured as Bob Lin in the Netflix film Love Hard, and later joined the cast of the ABC drama series The Company You Keep (2023) as Joseph Nishimura.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Idolmaker	Eddie
1984	Hot Dog…The Movie	Kendo
	The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension	Masado Banzai, Buckaroo's Father	Scenes deleted
1987	Beyond the Next Mountain	Sniper
1989	Mortal Sins	Park Sung
1990	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	The Shredder	Voiced by David McCharen
1993	Silent Cries	Japanese Soldier
1995	The Hunted	Nemura
	Die Hard with a Vengeance	Korean Proprietor
1997	Henry Fool	Mr. Deng
	The Devil's Advocate	Takaori Osumi
	Home Alone 3	Korean Mob Boss
1999	The Thomas Crown Affair	Paul Cheng
2000	Useless	Executive Oki	Short film
	Aloha	James	Short film
2001	Pearl Harbor	Japanese Aide #1
	Love the Hard Way	Akiri
	Another Bed	Bruce	Short film
2003	Robot Stories	Roy / Groper
2006	Brother's Shadow	Line Boss
2007	I Think I Love My Wife	Mr. Yuni
	Ghosts of the Heartland	John Lu
2012	Life of Pi	Older Insurance Investigator
2013	From the Rough	Won-Sik
2014	While We're Young	Dr. Nagato
	Big Eyes	Judge
2017	Wilson	Warren Kudo
	The Only Living Boy in New York	James
2019	Long Shot	Minister Kishido
	Always Be My Maybe	Harry
2020	Tigertail	Hank
2021	Love Hard	Bob Lin
2026	California Scenario	Bill

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Farewell to Manzanar	Richard Wakatsuki	TV movie
	Baa Baa Black Sheep	Third commando	Episode: "Up for Grabs"
1977		Ensign Kira	Episode: "Divine Wind"
1977–1981	M*A*S*H	South Korean Soldier / Park	3 episodes
1978	The Paper Chase	Kai	Episode: "Bell's in Love"
1979	The Paper Chase	Student #1	Episode: "The Apprentice"
	Lou Grant	Steve Nakajima	Episode: "Hype"
1980	Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb	Lieutenant Tatsuo Yamato	TV movie
	The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story		TV movie
1981	The Waltons	Japanese Sergeant	Episode: "The Last Ten Days"
	Soap	Hiro	1 episode
	The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo	Steven Chiu	Episode: "The Roller Disco Karate Kaper"
	The Two Lives of Carol Letner	Professor	TV movie
	The Incredible Hulk	Viet Interpreter	Episode: "Viet"
	The Fall Guy	Police Officer	Episode: "Japanese Connection"
Bosom Buddies	The Man	Episode: "All You Need Is Love"
1982	The Greatest American Hero	Kelly Kim	Episode: "The Hand-Painted Thai"
	Tales of the Gold Monkey	Japanese Lieutenant	Episode: "Once a Tiger..."
1983	The Renegades	Sam Chow	Episode: "On the Pad"
	Girls of the White Orchid	Officer #1	TV movie; alternative title Death Ride to Osaka
1983–1984	Knots Landing	Reporter	2 episodes
1984	Hart to Hart	Yamahiro	Episode: "The Dog Who Knew Too Much"
	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Ronnie Quan	Episode: "The Mole"
	T.J. Hooker	Lab Technician	Episode: "Hot Property"
	Charles in Charge	Chinese Food Delivery Man	Episode: "Pilot"
1985	Street Hawk	Joe Ching	Episode: "Chinatown Memories"
	Covenant	Cabbie	TV movie
	MacGyver	Ming	Episode 1.2: "The Golden Triangle"
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Anesthesiologist #1	Episode: "Night Fever"
	Crazy Like a Fox	Chinese Henchman	Episode: "Year of the Fox"
	Miami Vice	Howie Wong	Episode: "Golden Triangle: Part 2"
1986	Blood & Orchids	Halehone	TV movie
	The Young and the Restless	Roy Namaguchi	2 episodes
	The A-Team	Kwai Li	Episode: "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair"
1987	Hill Street Blues	Bob Ashahina	Episode: "Days of Swine and Roses"
	Airwolf	Tim Shimizu	Episode: "X-Virus"
1988	Miami Vice	Ma Sek	Episode: "Heart of Night"
	C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf		TV movie
	War and Remembrance	Operations Officer (Yamato)	TV Miniseries; Episode: "Part 3"
1989	Gideon Oliver	Johnny Chen	Episode: "Tongs"
1990	Counterstrike	General Loctuck	Episode: "Power Play"
	Top Cops	Johnny Kai	Episode: "Paul LeBoeuf/Johnny Kai"
	True Blue		Episode: "Chinatown"
1992	To Be the Best	Tony Chiu	TV movie
1994	Law & Order	Mr. Tanaka	Episode: "Scoundrels"
1994–1995	New York Undercover	Detective Chang	2 episodes
1995	Star Trek: Voyager	Nogami	Episode: "The 37s"
1996	Gargoyles	Taro (voice)	Episode: "Bushido"
	The Tomorrow Man	Dr. Lorechi	TV movie
1999	Sex and the City	Korean Man	Episode: "Ex and the City"
2000	Strangers with Candy	Drug Tester	Episode: "Blank Relay"
	Law & Order	Yoshi Yoshimura	Episode: "Dissonance"
2001	100 Centre Street		2 episodes
	The Atlantis Conspiracy	Police Officer	TV movie
2002	Third Watch	Sgt. Yee	Episode: "The Long Guns"
2004	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Mr. Miyazaki	Episode: "Great Barrier"
2005	Starved	Captain Wong	Episode: "Thank You, I Love You"
2006	As the World Turns	Kano Yamamoto	2 episodes
2008	Heroes and Villains	Ieyasu Tokugawa	Episode: "Shogun"
2008–2009	Eli Stone	Dr. Frank Chen	Main cast
2009	The Unit	Chu	Episode: "Chaos Theory"
2010	Rubicon	Mooney	Episode: "The Truth Will Out"
	Blue Bloods	Dennis Eng	Episode: "Chinatown"
2011	Too Big to Fail	Chinese Official	TV movie
	One Life to Live	Judge Lee	9 episodes
2012	30 Rock	Chef	Episode: "Leap Day"
	Person of Interest	Glen	Episode: "Bury the Lede"
2013	Hawaii Five-0	David Toriyama	Episode: "Ho'onani Makuakane"
2014	Madam Secretary	Japanese Foreign Minister Shimbakura	Episode: "Just Another Normal Day"
2016	House of Cards	Dr. Krebs	Episode: "Chapter 50"
2017	The Deuce	Kim	2 episodes
2018	Paterno	Doctor	TV movie
	Instinct	Haru Onishi	Episode: "Heartless"
	Marvel's Iron Fist	Yu-Ti	Episode: "The City's Not for Burning"
	Elementary	Dr. Ken Fukata	Episode: "Uncanny Valley of the Dolls"
2019	Broad City	Trang	Episode: "Bitcoin & the Missing Girl"
	Modern Love	Kenji Inouye	Episode: "The Race Grows Sweeter"
	Prodigal Son	Dr. Higa	Episode: "The Surgeon"
2020	Altered Carbon	Tanaseda Hideki	Main role season 2
	Grey's Anatomy	Hershel Roberts	Episode: "Sing It Again"
	Dash & Lily	Arthur Mori	Recurring role
2023	The Company You Keep	Joseph	Main role

External links

• James Saito at IMDb