Byron Mann

Byron Mann (Chinese: 文峰; pinyin: Wén Fēng; Jyutping: Man4 Fung1) is a Chinese American actor who has made films in both Hollywood, Hong Kong and Mainland China. He is perhaps best known for his performances as Ryu in Street Fighter, Silver Lion in The Man with the Iron Fists and Yao Fei in the first season of Arrow.^[1]

Early life

Mann was born in Hong Kong. He attended the Diocesan Boys' School, an all-boys secondary school in Hong Kong, where he was active in community theatre as both an actor and a writer. After graduating, Byron moved to California to study and received a degree in philosophy at UCLA, even though acting remained important to him. After college, Byron attended USC Law School, but took a sabbatical after the first year. Back in Hong Kong, he received an acting role in the NBC Movie TV movie Last Flight Out. He returned to Los Angeles, graduated from USC Law, passed the California bar, and pursued acting full-time.

Career

Mann starred in films such as Red Corner and The Corruptor, and in the television show Dark Angel, and has also co-starred in Catwoman and Invincible. He is best known as Ryu in Street Fighter (starring alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá) and Koh in the manga-based movie Crying Freeman. In 2012, Mann starred alongside Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu in The Man with the Iron Fists, directed by RZA, and presented by Quentin Tarantino. In 2015, Mann appeared in The Big Short, a Paramount Pictures feature film directed by Adam McKay, alongside Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrell. He also was a series regular on AMC's Hell on Wheels, playing the powerful railroad mercenary Chang.

Mann is interested in sports, especially tennis and golf. He was at one point a top-ranked tennis player in Hong Kong. He is also a wushu practitioner, displaying his skills in a number of movies including Invincible and Street Fighter.

Awards

In 2016 Mann was nominated for the Golden Maple Award for Best Actor in a TV series broadcast in the U.S., for his role on Hell on Wheels.^[2]

Filmography

• Last Flight Out (1990) (TV)
• Ghost Ship (1992) – Charlie
• Murphy Brown – Quan Chang
• Time Trax – Taki
• Possessed by the Night (1994) – Fok Ping Wong
• Deadly Target (1994) – Chang
• Street Fighter (1994) – Ryu
• Street Fighter: The Movie video game (1995) – Ryu
• Crying Freeman (1995) – Koh
• Murder, She Wrote – Yosuki Ishida
• Pacific Blue – Marlon Ky
• The Sentinel – Tommy Wu
• Red Corner (1997) – Lin Dan
• American Dragons (1998) – Shadow
• The Corruptor (1999) – Bobby Vu
• Martial Law – Ataru Nakamura
• Walker, Texas Ranger – P.K. Song
• UC: Undercover – Simon Shen
• Invincible (2001) – Michael Fu
• The Chang Family Saves the World (2002)
• Dark Angel
• Robbery Homicide Division
• First to Die (2003) (TV) – Derek Lee
• Belly of the Beast (2003) – Sunti
• Petits mythes urbains
• Catwoman (2004) – Wesley
• Sniper 3 (2004) – Quan
• Smallville
• Fallen (2006) – Samchiel
• The Counting House (2006) – Jackie
• Dragon Boys (2007) – Tommy Jiang
• Shanghai Kiss (2007) – Jai Li
• Blonde and Blonder (2007) – Mr. Wong
• The Unit (2009) – Stanley Wu
• Motherland (2009) – Michael Wong
• A Dangerous Man (2009) – The Colonel
• 39 (2009) – Kenny
• Vauxhall Crossed (2010) – Michael Wong
• Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (2010) – Chen
• Jasmine (2010) – The Man
• Befriend and Betray (2010) – PC Lau
• Sleeping Dogs (2012) – Raymond Mak / Pockmark Cheuk
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012) – General Tian-Zhao
• The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) – Silver Lion
• Cold War (2012) – Chan Bun
• Arrow (2012–2013) – Yao-Fei
• A Stranger in Paradise (2013) – Lek
• Rise of the Legend (2014) – Black Crow
• Jasmine (2015) - The Suspect^[3]
• Absolution (2015) – Chi
• The Big Short (2015) – Wing Chau
• Hell on Wheels (2015 TV series) – Chang
• Altered Carbon (TBA) - O.G. Kovacs

References

External links

• Byron Mann at the Internet Movie Database