Reggie Lee
Reggie Lee in 2007
Born
Reggie Telmo Valdez

October 4, 1975 (1975-10-04) (age 48)[1]
Quezon City, Philippines
EducationPadua Franciscan High School
OccupationActor

Reggie Telmo Valdez (born October 4, 1975), known professionally as Reggie Lee, is a Filipino-American[2] film and television actor. On television, he has played William "Bill" Kim on Prison Break and Sergeant Drew Wu on Grimm. In film, he has played Tai Huang in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, GCPD Officer Ross in The Dark Knight Rises and Lance Nguyen in The Fast and the Furious.

Early life

Valdez was born in Quezon City, the Philippines,[2] to Zenaida Telmo and Jesus Espiritu Valdez.[3] Although fluent in English, he also speaks Tagalog. At the age of five, he moved with his family to the Cleveland, Ohio area, including Parma and Strongsville. While still a student, he performed in shows at the Greenbrier Theatre (now the Cassidy Theatre) in Parma Heights and was an intern at the Cleveland Play House. He graduated from Padua Franciscan High School in Parma.[4]

Although accepted to Harvard, he instead decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting.[5] He later changed his last name from Valdez to Lee, stating in a 2001 interview that "they kept calling me in for Hispanic roles, and I'm a far cry from Hispanic";[4] he took the name Lee from his grandparents.[1]

Career

In 1992, at the age of 17, Lee moved to Los Angeles, where he joined a national tour of Miss Saigon.[1] He later worked as a dancer for Prince on the MTV Video Music Awards and toured nationally with the musical Heartstrings.[1] He was in the original company of the 1994 Broadway revival of Carousel.[1] In 1997, he received a Drama-Logue Award for his performance in F.O.B. at East West Players, an Asian-American theatre organization in Los Angeles.[1] With his role garnering critical acclaim, he also starred in their production of Carry the Tiger to the Mountain.[1]

Since starring as Lance Nguyen in The Fast and the Furious, Lee appeared as Tai Huang in the Walt Disney Pictures film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. He has played Secret Service Special Agent Bill Kim in the FOX drama Prison Break, a character he describes as "a guilty pleasure to play, wonderfully complex and devious". He appeared in Chinaman's Chance, about which he said "It's an important story that definitely needs to be told and humanized. Plus I get to play pretend in the Old West. How great is that?"[6]

In 2010, he guest-starred as Tom in the NBC series Persons Unknown.

In 2012, he played Ross, a Gotham City police officer in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.

From 2011 to 2017, he played Desk Sergeant Drew Wu in the NBC supernatural police drama Grimm.

In 2018, for NCIS: New Orleans, he appeared as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Steven Thompson.[7] He previously appeared in an unrelated role in an episode of NCIS. In 2021, Blogtalk with MJ Racadio named him one of the "75 Most Influential Filipino-Americans".[8]

Personal life

Lee has two younger brothers, musician Nathan and comic book artist R.V. Valdez.[4][9]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1999 The Big Blind
2000 Southstreet Lullaby Mahler Greeter
Psycho Beach Party Dancer
Drift Ryan As R.T. Lee
2001 XCU: Extreme Close Up Huy Phan
The Fast and the Furious Lance Nguyen
The Parlor Slappy Sue Short film
2002 Black Hole Justin
Reality School Student
The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest Suit
2003 Masked and Anonymous Armed Man
Net Games Laurence
2004 Frankenfish Anton
2005 Amateur Ron Harper
2006 Dimples Dr. Ross Hammer
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Hadras
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Tai Huang
2008 I Am Somebody: No Chance in Hell Sing Also known as Chinaman's Chance
Tropic Thunder Byong
2009 Drag Me to Hell Stu Rubin
Star Trek Test Administrator Kobayashi Maru
2010 Life as We Know It Alan Burke
2011 Crazy, Stupid, Love Officer Huang
2012 Safe Quan Chang
Here Comes the Boom Mr. De La Cruz
The Dark Knight Rises GCPD Officer Ross
2019 Disappearance Detective Park
2021 Sweet Girl Dr. Wu

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 Diagnosis: Murder Kim Ho Episode: "The ABC's of Murder"
1997 Dangerous Minds Student Episode: "Teach, Don't Touch"
Moloney Ramon Episode: "Loves and Lost"
1998 Babylon 5 Chen Hikaru Episode: "The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father"
The Wayans Bros. Reporter #2 Episode: "Pops' Campaign"
ER Christian Episode: "Split Second"
Sister, Sister Lawson Hicks Episode: "We Are Family"
Hyperion Bay Lives-on-Pizza Episode: "Family Business"
Mad About You Gardner's Assistant Episode: "Weekend in L.A."
Seven Days Duncan Episode: "Shadow Play"
1999 Beverly Hills, 90210 Richard Episode: "The Following Options"
Two of a Kind Waiter Episode: "When a Man Loves a Woman"
Sons of Thunder Bad Guy Episode: "Thunder by Your Side"
2000 Walker, Texas Ranger Chan Episode: "The General's Return"
Chicago Hope Sam Episode: "Have I Got a Deal for You"
2001 The Ellen Show Kwan Episode: "Pilot"
Philly Brian Chin 2 episodes
2001–2002 Judging Amy Dr. Oliver Lee
2001–2003 The Division Officer Jim Chang 4 episodes
2002 Strong Medicine Dr. Nakashima Episode: "House Calls"
2003 Luis Zhing Zhang Main role
2005 Blind Justice Don Yun Episode: "Seoul Man"
2006 Night Stalker Stanley Kim Episode: "What's the Frequency, Colchak?"
2006–2007 Prison Break William "Bill" Kim recurring, 16 episodes
2008 NCIS Jonathan Chow Episode: "Stakeout"
2010 No Ordinary Family Dr. Francis Chiles 5 episodes
Persons Unknown Tom recurring, 7 episodes
2010–2021 American Dad! Hideki Yoshida (voice) 5 episodes
2011 White Collar Ambassador Kyi Episode: "What Happens in Burma"
2011–2017 Grimm Sgt. Drew Wu Main role
2017 Hawaii Five-0 Joey Kang Episode: "E uhi wale no 'a'ole e nalo, he imu puhi"
2017–2019 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Dr. Ronald Yee 2 episodes
2018 LA to Vegas Lewis Episode: "The Affair"
NCIS: New Orleans Special Agent Steven Thompson 2 episodes
2018–2019 Fresh Off the Boat Julius
2019–2021; 2023 All Rise Thomas Choi Recurring role (Season 1), Main role (Season 2), Guest role (Season 3)
2021 The Rookie CIA Agent Mike Weston Episode: "Red Hot"
2022 Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Paul Lee Episode: "Did You Believe in Miracles?"
The Lincoln Lawyer Angelo Soto Recurring role
2024 CSI Vegas[10] Undersheriff Zhao

Video games

Year Title Role
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Tai Huang

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lo, Ricardo F. (May 23, 2007). "Reggie Lee: From Q.C. to Hollywood". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved April 23, 2012. That was 1992 and he was 18.
  2. 1 2 "The Filipino-American actor in 'Pirates 3' is from Quezon City". Manila Bulletin. June 16, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ Villagomez, Kaye (October 7, 2008). "Pinoy actor talks about breaking barriers in Hollywood". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Palmer, Debbie (September 13, 2001). "Actor passes up Harvard: Padua grad trades college for leading roles in TV series, movies". Cleveland Sun News. Archived from the original on December 30, 2001.
  5. ↑ "Reggie Lee".
  6. ↑ "The Filipino-American actor in 'Pirates 3' is from Quezon City". Manila Bulletin. June 16, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
  7. ↑ Petski, Denise (20 August 2018). "'NCIS: New Orleans' Casts Reggie Lee; Samantha Sloyan Joins 'SEAL Team'". Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Comedian Jo Koy leads 75 Most Influential Filipino Americans list". goodnewspilipinas.com. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  9. ↑ "About Me". RVValdez.com. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  10. ↑ "CSI: Vegas Adds Reggie Lee for Season 3 (Exclusive)". TVLine.com. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
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