Hawaii Five-0

Season 1 e.tv (*194) 20:30 Action

Daniel Dae Kim’s detective character Chin Ho Kelly in action reboot Hawaii Five- 0 (2010- current) is a by-the-books cop and it’s part of the reason that Dan auditioned for the role. The other? He was a fan of the original that ran from 1968 to 1980 and says that working in Hawaii “is pretty much the coolest thing you can want as an actor. The beach is your backyard!”

1 He’s from South Korea and moved to the US in 1969 when he was a year old. His doctor dad Doo Tae took up a physician post at a New York hospital before the family moved to the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

2 Daniel moved to LA immediately after graduating from New York University’s Graduate Acting Program in 1996 but only got bit-part roles until 2004, when he was cast as Jin-Soo in sci-fi drama Lost (2004-2010).

3 He moved his wife Mia and sons Zander and Jackson to Hawaii in 2009, not knowing that Lost was ending the next year. “We never thought about moving back to the mainland – and I didn’t need to after being cast in Five- 0, thankfully,” says the actor.

4 His new job wasn’t all sunshine and golden beaches though – he left at the end of season 7 (2017) with co-star Grace Park (Officer Kono) after their reported wage demands weren’t met: the same $200 000 (R2.8 million) per episode as lead star Alex O’Loughlin (Steve McGarrett)

5 Dan also works behind the scenes; he owns production house 3AD who’re the producers of medical drama The Good Doctor (2017- current).