James Kyson (born December 13, 1975) is a Korean–American actor best known for his television work. One of his best known roles was Ando Masahashi on the NBC television series Heroes, and he has also made guest appearances on television series such as Hawaii Five-0, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
Kyson was born in Seoul and moved with his family to New York City at the age of 10, where he later attended The Bronx High School of Science. He studied communications and broadcasting at Boston University and the New England Institute of Art. In 2001 Kyson bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles with the intent of entering the acting industry. He enrolled in performing arts classes at a community college while auditioning for roles and working as a SAT tutor to make ends meet.
Kyson landed his first acting role on the hit military legal drama JAG in 2003. He landed guest roles in hit network television series The West Wing and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation amongst others before being cast as one of his more widely known roles, Ando Masahashi in the sci-fi series Heroes. The role required him to speak Japanese. He later stated that he had taken a semester of Japanese in college and did not find learning the language difficult as it was grammatically similar to Korean, which he is fluent in. Since Heroes ended, he also guest-starred on Hawaii Five-0, Justified, Animals., Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, and more recently Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.