Why Chris Park From CSI: Vegas Looks So Familiar
In many ways, "CSI: Vegas" is about bringing back the old. The series' former protagonists, Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), have been brought back for another go-around. They're the same old agents, working in the same old building, on (mostly) similar cases. However — as any good reboot, remake, or resurrection should — the show blends in a little bit of new to make sure things aren't exactly like the original "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Of these new elements, none are quite as prominent as the new CSIs that joined the team after Gil and Sara said their goodbyes.
Of the new characters, there are only two who are considered true-blue CSIs. The first is Penny Gil, whose actress (Sarah Gilman) would probably seem recognizable if you watched Disney Channel in the mid-2010s. There is also Chris Park, played by Jay Lee, another actor who might look oddly familiar depending on what kind of entertainment you enjoy. If he does happen to ring a bell, then here are all the projects that might make Chris Park from "CSI: Vegas" look so familiar.
Jay Lee's first major role was in Colony
Of all the things you might expect your first major role to be, a dystopian sci-fi series about tyrannical aliens and "Red Dawn"-esque resistance fighters might not be one of them. When it comes to Jay Lee, however, the USA Network's "Colony" proved an apt launching point for his TV career — not that "Colony" was Lee's first time acting. As a then-recent graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Dramatic Arts, Lee already had tons of experience on stage in a theater setting according to the resume available on his personal website. "Colony" just happened to be his first major TV credit (via IMDb).
Regardless of theater experience, the fact that Lee's character on "Colony" is relatively minor isn't surprising. The character in question, Justin Kim, only appears in two episodes of the series' first season. As a member of the resistance, we see Justin distributing weapons to resistance fighters prior to a mission. Unfortunately, it's not a mission that Justin survives, and we see him for the last time in the episode "A Brave New World."
That's okay, however, because while Justin had to die, Jay Lee went on to live another day, and (more importantly) appear in more projects.
Jay Lee was in American Vandal
After his stint on "Colony," Jay Lee found several other avenues to express his talents. In 2017, he directed his own short, "Hey Kaite This is Josh," about a man struggling to call a girl he is interested in (via IMDb). Afterwards, however, Lee returned to acting, playing Casey in the short "@asst" and portraying the side character Andy in the 2018 film "Bully," alongside Danny Trejo. Later that year, Lee landed another recurring role in a TV series, this time in Netflix's true crime mockumentary "American Vandal."
In the series' second season, Lee played the role of Tanner Bassett. A student at St. Bernardine Catholic School, Tanner becomes one of the unfortunate victims (along with the rest of the school) of that season's dastardly vandal, a person who goes by the title, "The Turd Burglar." After The Turd Burglar spikes the school's lemonade supply during lunch, the entire school suffers widespread intestinal distress in an event that they call "The Brown Out." Unfortunately, while Tanner appears in six episodes of the season, he doesn't play a huge role in the mystery at hand. Thankfully, he has a much larger role to play in his next big series.
Jay Lee drops his clean act for The Filth
So far, all of Jay Lee's roles have been in TV series, movies, or short films. 2019's "The Filth" appears as his first foray into the world of widely available digital series. All five episodes of "The Filth" are available for free on YouTube, and in all five, Lee's character, Danny, has a major part to play.
The series itself focuses on two LGBT characters, Stella (Paige Hoffman) and Max (Jake Delaney), as they struggle with romance and independent life. Lee plays the part of Danny, Max's roommate with whom Max shares an odd sense of chemistry. As the series progresses, the two become closer, and their relationship borders on potentially romantic. However, Danny, who identifies as heterosexual, may not be the man that Max is looking for. Then again, Max thinks it may be worth a shot. How their romance ends, however, is a story one should discover for themselves.
Until then, Lee had one major role left before he became a new member of the "CSI" crew.
You can find Jay Lee in Looking for Alaska
Few Young Adult authors have had as much impact as John Green. Whether he is authoring bestselling novels like "The Fault in our Stars," making quirky and thoughtful videos with his brother on YouTube, or using that same platform to teach kids about history or literature on the channel Crash Course, John Green always seems to be doing something meaningful. That's why it's such a big deal that Jay Lee got to play a part in Hulu's miniseries adaptation of Green's breakout novel, "Looking for Alaska."
In it, Lee plays Takumi Hikohito, a member of the main friend group that the protagonist, Miles (Charlie Plummer), makes upon arriving at Culver Creek Academy. The group goes through several crazy adventures together across the series, including a continuous prank war against another group of students called "The Weekday Warriors," all of which culminates in the death of one of their own group members. Everybody in the group is hit hard by the event, and Takumi is no exception, as they each learn that they all share at least a sliver of blame for what happened the night their friend died.
It's an emotionally moving tale, to say the least, and a fitting one for Lee to be a part of before transitioning to the ultimately grittier world of crime that his character tackles in "CSI: Vegas."