Ken Leung

Leung has had roles in television shows such as the CBS crime series Person of Interest (2012–13), the NBC medical series The Night Shift (2014–15), and the Marvel Television series Inhumans (2017) as well as notable guest roles on the HBO crime series The Sopranos (2007) and the CBS legal series The Good Wife (2011). He also played in supporting roles in Rush Hour (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Red Dragon (2002), Saw (2004), The Squid and the Whale (2005), Inside Man (2006), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Old (2021) and Project Hail Mary (2026).

On stage, Leung made his Broadway debut playing a Chinese immigrant in the musical revival Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002). He has also taken roles in the Terrence McNally play Corpus Christi (1998) and the Dustin Lance Black play 8 (2011).

Leung was born on January 21, 1970, in New York City, to Chinese parents, and was initially raised in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His family moved to Midwood, Brooklyn, where he grew up before finishing high school in Old Bridge, New Jersey. Leung had a brother, Kevin, who drowned in Thailand in 2013.

Leung attended New York University studying physical therapy. He discovered acting in his junior year, studying with Catherine Russell and Nan Smithner, and then briefly with Anne Jackson at HB Studio. During this time, he acted mostly in downtown spaces and black box theaters, working with groups such as Ma-Yi Theater Company, New Perspectives, and STAR, a troupe of actors-educators based at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2002.

In 1998, Leung made his debut as the villainous henchman Sang opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Brett Ratner's Rush Hour. He would later work with Ratner in the films Red Dragon, The Family Man, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Edward Norton cast Leung in his directorial debut Keeping the Faith in 2000. Norton stated that Leung turned a tiny role into one of the movie's most hilarious moments – so much so that the filmmakers expanded the scene because audiences laughed so hard.

In 1998, he played James the Less and God in Terrence McNally's passion play, Corpus Christi, and in 2002 made his Broadway debut in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, also appearing on the cast recording. In 2007, he starred in the independent film Shanghai Kiss, with Hayden Panettiere and earned a Special Mention at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. That same year, Leung guest-starred in the final season of the HBO drama series The Sopranos.

From 2007, he starred as Miles Straume in 45 episodes of the ABC drama Lost, from the series' fourth season, through the rest of its run. From 2014, Leung starred as Topher Zia in the series The Night Shift.

In 2020, Leung began playing a main role in HBO's Industry as Eric Tao, a Managing Director (MD) on the Cross Product Sales (CPS) desk at Pierpoint. The show's creators stated that Leung is "one of the great actors of his generation, 100%...He’s out of this world.” Leung attracted attention online for his distinctive screen presence as Eric Tao. Yahoo News noted that some users that searched for popular GIFs of Leung used the phrase "strict Asian Obama" when they did not know Leung's name, due to the two sharing similar appearances and mannerisms.

In 2024, he played Commander Zhao in the Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Leung speaks Cantonese. He is married to Nancy Bulalacao, a curator for public programs for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, who is of Filipina descent. They have one son, born in 2015, and reside in Brooklyn.