Chris Tashima

Chris Tashima ( born March 24, 1960 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American- Japanese film director and actor. For his work as a director with the short film Visas and Virtue, he won an Oscar in 1998.

Life

Tashima was born in Massachusetts but grew up in the California cities of Pasadena and Berkeley. His father Atsushi Wallace Tashima was the first Japanese -born judge in a U.S. federal appeals court. Tashima studied film production at UC Santa Cruz and UC Los Angeles.

In 1985, he began his acting career in the theater company East West Players. In the following years, he starred in numerous feature and short films, and was also active in theater. He had minor guest roles, inter alia, in the U.S. television series The Shield - The Shield and the Restless. At the theater he worked with as a set designer and later as a director and producer. For his stage sets, he won a Drama - Logue Award in 1992 for Into the Woods and a 1995 Ovation Award for Sweeney Todd.

Tashima in 1996 co-founded the production company Cedar Grove Productions. In the 26- minute short film Visas and Virtue, he led in 1997 directed and also wrote the screenplay based on a play by Tim Toyama. At the same time, he also played the lead role of the diplomat Chiune Sugihara. Together with producer Chris Donahue, he won an award in the category Best Short Film at the Academy Awards in 1998. He was also honored with the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and a nomination at the Algarve International Film Festival.

2003 established the short film Day of Independence, in which Tashima was responsible for writing and directing again. With this film, he has won numerous awards at various film festivals.