Detailed Biography

Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and various styles of kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18.

Beginning in January 2005, Dacascos has portrayed "the Chairman" on Food Network's television series Iron Chef America. This role was previously played by Takeshi Kaga in the original Japanese Iron Chef, and Dacascos claims an in-character relationship to Kaga as his nephew.

He competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. His partner was So You Think You Can Dance finalist Lacey Schwimmer. The pair was eliminated in the 7th episode.

Biography

His father, Al Dacascos, is from Hawaiʻi, and is a martial arts instructor of Filipino ancestry. His mother, Moriko McVey, is of Irish and Japanese ancestry. His stepmothers are award winning martial artist Malia Bernal and Hawaiian singer Melveen Leed.

He is married to actress Julie Condra, who starred with him in Crying Freeman.

Career

Dacascos became an actor after being discovered walking down the street in San Francisco's Chinatown by two men working for director Wayne Wang. Though Dacascos' first scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, he has gone on to establish a film and television career mostly playing martial artists. His breakout role was in the 1993 film Only the Strong, in which he played Louis, a Capoeira master who takes a high school's potential failures and turns their lives around by teaching them the venerable Brazilian martial art. In the following year, he co-starred with Party of Five's Scott Wolf as Jimmy and Billy Lee, respectively, in the video game based movie Double Dragon.

He also performed in three video games: voice acting in Stranglehold, live acting in Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom and digitally recreating The Chairman in the new Iron Chef video game for Wii. He was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for his role in Brotherhood of the Wolf, which was a box office success in the United States.

He has also appeared in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, which was a follow-up to the 1994 film The Crow.

He has been featured in many action films such as Brotherhood of the Wolf, Crying Freeman and Cradle 2 the Grave, in which he squared off against Jet Li.

One of his more recent roles is in the children's television show, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. He portrays Advent Master Eubulon, mentor of the Kamen Riders and creator of the Advent Decks.