If there are very few Asian stars—and there are—it is also true that there are few Asian Hey It’s That Guys. To give you all a peek behind the scenes, our article image for these columns is, for preference, from the first place I think of the person. And we had to go quite a way down the list on François Chau, as I never did watch Lost. For so many of his roles, there is no clear image available online of him as the character—or, in one case, his face is covered, or, as in another, it’s animated and we don’t do drawings or paintings except in certain very specific circumstances. In the end, I went with a “well, who can resist that?” because, you know, who can resist that?

François Chau was born in Cambodia in 1959; his family moved to what is now officially Ho Chi Minh City when he was six. Which indicates to anyone with an awareness of history that it was a fairly dangerous place. The family moved to France not long after. From there, they moved to Washington, DC. Upon graduating from college, he moved to Los Angeles, one assumes to break into the entertainment industry, which he eventually did. Which, to be clear, is not easy regardless of your ethnic heritage, but it’s made harder if you’re anything but a white guy.

You have definitely seen Chau somewhere. My first attempt was Rescue Dawn. I’ll admit it’s been a long time since I’ve watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, so it’s possible there’s a time when Shredder isn’t wearing the helmet, but I wouldn’t be able to tell if that image was from the movie unless he’s also wearing the rest of the costume. I didn’t see an image like that. Raya and the Last Dragon is great, but it’s animated. I couldn’t find images of him in The Flash or Helter Skelter or Numb3rs and eventually just gave up. Oh, look, Muppet.

Chau is one of those actors I’ve seen often enough to be confident that he has talent but have only seen in such small roles that I’ve never seen him prove it. This is, as established, partially my own fault. I’ve seen a couple of things where he did more than one episode, but he was an extremely minor character on ER in the mid-’90s, I can’t remember for sure if I ever watched Wild Palms, and Baywatch never gave anyone an opportunity for fine acting, much less a minor character like that. I’ve seen a couple of movies he was in, but he’s usually a fairly minor character.

If I have not yet found you something he’s been in that you’ve seen, I do apologize. He’s on the new Avatar show, if you’re so inclined, and I did hear good things about the Amazon Tick, though my certainty that no one can compete in the role with Patrick Warburton is why I’ve not gotten around to it. He was in Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, if that’s your speed. There’s something he’s done that you’ve seen if you’re at all familiar with current media. The very definition of a Hey It’s That Guy.

I’m going to keep on digging, so it would be nice of you’d support my Patreon or Ko-fi!