Actor / Director Profile

An MIT grad, Masamune has had lead stage roles directed by Tony Award Winner Mary Zimmerman (Goodman Theatre) and Tony Award Winner Dan Sullivan (Williamstown Theatre Festival). He also has worked with playwrights A.R. Gurney (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Tony Award Nominee Irene Mecchi (American Conservatory Theatre). He also was a member of the nationally recognized troupe, Theatre of Yugen, performing classical Japanese theatre (Noh/Kyogen).He starts off the Christopher Nolan film "Inception" with the first line of the movie playing opposite Leo DiCaprio and Ken Watanabe. He appeared in a lead role (Ozu) in the SyFy channel original movie, "Warbirds", and will also appear in the upcoming feature film "Baby-O" directed by Charlie Matthau. He has made guest appearances on several TV shows which include "No Ordinary Family", "iCarly", "Bigshots","Heroes" (recurring as Mr. Egami), "24", "Without a Trace", "Chicago Hope", "Providence", "The Practice" and "Mad About You", "The Cape" (where he first worked with Emmy award winning director Jon Cassar). His first gig was on the film "Pacific Heights" directed by the late Oscar winner, John Schlesinger.His father was a top research professor at MIT, and his grandfather too was a world-renown scientist (in Japan).During college, Tohoru also was involved in the contemporary art world, working on technical crews for internationally renown installations artists, Nam Jun Paik, Brian Eno, and Bill Viola.He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His family eventually settled in Newton (suburb of Boston), Massachusetts.He has been a principal in numerous national commercial campaigns including Coor's Light, Volvo, Yo-Plus (Yoplait), Nissan Maxima, Ikea, Ford Trucks, Subaru, Oldsmobile, Northwest Airlines. He has done 2 commercials with director, Zack Snyder ("300", "Watchmen").He enjoys playing Ice Hockey and jamming on his Alesis keyboard.