Justin Chon Biography

Justin Jitae Chon (born May 29, 1981) is a Korean American actor. He is best known for portraying Eric Yorkie in The Twilight Saga film series (2008-2012).

Early life

Chon was born in Garden Grove, California and raised in Irvine, California. He is of South Korean descent. His father, Sang, who worked in show business, was a child actor in South Korea, and was often in black and white films. Chon grew up watching his father's films, which eventually inspired him to pursue acting. His mother, Kyung, is a pianist and homemaker.

Chon was educated at University High School in his home city of Irvine in California, where he played saxophone in the marching band, followed by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he majored in Business Administration. As he was required to learn a language as a part of his course, he started learning Japanese, then switched to Korean (his parents' native tongue). In order to improve his ability in the language, he spent time in South Korea as part of a year abroad in his junior year. During the first semester, he lived in the dorms of Yonsei University, in the capital, Seoul.

Career

Acting

Chon started acting in 2005 in shows such as Jack & Bobby and Taki & Luci. He came to fame in 2006 when he played Peter Wu in the Disney Channel film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. He also played Tony Lee in the Nickelodeon sitcom Just Jordan. In 2008, he played Eric Yorkie in the film Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer. Justin reprised his role as Eric Yorkie in the Twilight sequel New Moon. He starred as the central character, Jeff Chang, in the film 21 & Over. He also appeared in the independent film Innocent Blood. In 2014, Chon appeared as a lead character in crime drama film Revenge of the Green Dragons (executive produced by Martin Scorsese ). In 2015, Chon starred as "Sid Park", the trouble-making main character influenced by rocker culture in the independent film Seoul Searching directed by Benson Lee, which made its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Directing

Chon also co-wrote (with Kevin Wu aka KevJumba), directed, executive produced, and starred in a feature film released in 2015 entitled Man Up. The film made its premiere at the 2015 CAAMFest. It also screened at the 2015 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, making its West Coast Premiere there. The film is set in Hawaii and stars himself (Justin Chon), Kevin Wu, Amy Hill, Parvesh Cheena, Nichole Bloom, Dion Basco, Samantha Futerman and more. In March 2015, the comedy was acquired by "Off the Dock", a digital studio owned by Lakeshore Entertainment.

Chon has also directed several digital short films that are viewable on his YouTube Channel, including You're Stoopid (2013), Full Circle (2013) and 90 Day Visa (2015).

Other ventures

Chon co-owns a chain of stores, named the Attic, in California. In January 2015, he began uploading edited vlogs to his YouTube channel on a weekly basis. Since November 2015, he has uploaded edited vlogs to the channel on a daily basis. He also creates short comedy videos on YouTube with his friends. He has appeared in videos on Nigahiga's YouTube channel.

Personal life

After dating for over a year, he married his girlfriend Sasha (Egorova) Chon in October 2014.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Puff, Puff, Pass	Bobbi
2006	Fleetwood	Rong
2006	Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior	Peter Wu	Television film
2007	Hack!	Ricky
2008	Twilight	Eric Yorkie
2009	Ashley Mason	Morgan
2009	Crossing Over	Yong Kim
2009	Turbo	Hugo Park
2009	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	Eric Yorkie
2009	Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach	Joe Chang	Television film
2010	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Eric Yorkie
2011	From the Rough	Ji-Kyung
2011	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1	Eric Yorkie
2012	Detention of the Dead	Ash
2012	Rock Jocks	Seth
2012	Hang Loose	BJ
2013	21 & Over	Jeff Chang
2013	Innocent Blood	Brad Lee
2014	Revenge of the Green Dragons	Sonny
2015	Seoul Searching	Sid Park
2015	Man Up	Randall	Also Director, Writer, Executive Producer
2016	Satanic	Seth
2016	Heartbeats	Jae Juarez	Filming
2016	Like Lambs	Jasper	Post-production

Director work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	You're Stoopid	Director, Writer	Short Film
2013	Full Circle	Director, Writer, Actor	Short Film
2015	90 Day Visa	Director, Writer, Actor	Short Film
2015	Man Up	Director, Writer, Actor, Executive Producer	Feature Film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Jack & Bobby	Greek Chorus	Episode: "Under the Influence"
2006	The O.C.	Big Korea	Episode: "The Party Favor"
2007-2008	Just Jordan	Tony Lee
2011	House	Harold Lam	Episode: "The Dig"
2013	New Girl	Brian	Episode: "Menus"
2015	Sin City Saints	Byron Summers
2016	Dramaworld	Seth Ko