What Daniel Dae Kim From Hawaii Five-0 Is Doing Now
We all miss "Hawaii Five-0," the long-running CBS action procedural that wrapped just last year after one of the most wildly successful bows for any TV show in the 2010s. But for several years until the series finale, fans of the show had been coping with one huge absence. We're referring, of course, to Daniel Dae Kim.
The South Korea-born American actor has been one of Hollywood's most dependable and beloved stars for nearly three decades and established himself as one of the all-time greats in the pantheon of Asian American screen icons. His commanding, effortlessly charismatic presence in the role of Detective Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly, the veteran officer and official mentor to the Five-0 task force, was crucial to making "Hawaii Five-0" the hit it was. However, he was pushed to leave the show in Season 7 due to a salary dispute with CBS executives, who refused to pay him the same as fellow stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan (via Variety).
If your exposure to Kim happened primarily in the form of "Five-0" episodes, you might be asking yourself what he has been doing since. The answer would be "a lot" — Kim has been staying equally busy as an actor and producer and taking on even bigger film and TV roles.
Daniel Dae Kim has stayed active on film and TV
After exiting "Hawaii Five-0" in 2017, Daniel Dae Kim didn't stay idle for long: The same year, he was able to get the medical drama series "The Good Doctor" on ABC through his production company 3AD (via The New York Times), taking on an executive producer role that he still retains to this day; he would also eventually recur on the show as Dr. Jackson Han. This is not the only recurring role he's since played on a medical drama series, either, as Seasons 2 and 3 of NBC's "New Amsterdam" have also seen him play Dr. Cassian Shin.
Kim's further TV roles have included Gabriel Cole on Season 2 of the Anna Paquin-starring British dramedy series "Flack," and Matthew Ryker on Season 2 of the National Geographic anthology series "The Hot Zone," which is titled "The Hot Zone: Anthrax" and focused on the 2001 anthrax attacks.
In 2019, Kim also made a major cinematic showing in "Hellboy," playing Ben Daimio, an M11 agent with the ability to turn into a jaguar-like beast, and "Always Be My Maybe'"s Brandon Choi, the prestigious restaurateur fiancé of Sasha Tran (Ali Wong). Additionally, he's appeared this year in the Netflix sci-fi flick "Stowaway," playing David Kim, the biologist aboard the MTS-42 mission to Mars where the film takes place.
He has also become a prolific voice actor
Daniel Dae Kim has always been a highly versatile talent: As early as 2006, still during his "Lost" days, he was already branching out to voice acting with a one-episode spot on "Avatar: The Last Airbender," playing General Fong, the fanatical Earth Kingdom warmonger who attempts to trigger Aang's (Zach Tyler Eisen) Avatar state by force. During his "Five-0" years, he made the time to return to the "Avatar" franchise, voicing Asami's (Seychelle Gabriel) morally compromised industrialist father Hiroshi Sato on "The Legend of Korra."
Since then, Kim has returned to the recording booth more and more often for both film and TV roles. He played the mysterious Young Man in the English-language dub of the Oscar-nominated Japanese anime film "Mirai," King Micah for three seasons of Netflix's "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power," Mr. Hong on Nickelodeon's "The Loud House" spinoff "The Casagrandes," and Chief Benja, Raya's (Kelly Marie Tran) father and the leader of the Heart tribe, in Disney's "Raya and the Last Dragon."
There's more for Kim on the docket
Naturally, for a star of his stature, Daniel Dae Kim already has several intriguing upcoming projects lined up. The first of them is Netflix's live-action adaptation of "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Fittingly given his previous history with the landmark Nickelodeon animated franchise, Kim has been cast as the arch-villain of the Avatar Aang cycle, the dreadful Fire Lord Ozai — a role he's taking up from voice actor Mark Hamill, no less.
In addition to the live-action "Avatar," Kim is also adding to his increasingly impressive resumé as a voice actor with a role on "Pantheon." Described by Deadline as "AMC's first hourlong animated primetime drama series," "Pantheon" is lining up a seriously impressive voice cast, which so far includes Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Taylor Schilling, Rosemarie DeWitt, Aaron Eckhart, Ron Livingston, Anika Noni Rose, and Scoot McNairy, among others. Kim will voice David, the recently deceased father of protagonist Maddie (Chang). David has become the world's first "Uploaded Intelligence" in the wake of "an experimental destructive brain scan," and his relationship with his daughter will seemingly provide the thrust of the show. Created by Craig Silverstein, the sci-fi offering looks like it could be one of Kim's most fascinating projects so far. And, for an actor nearing the 30th year of his career, that's saying a lot.