Marie Matiko
Encyclopedia
Early life
Marie Matiko is of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino heritage.She endured a stern cultural upbringing, which ultimately fostered discipline and an inherent passion for the arts as a child, where she could freely express herself. "When I was in grade school, I wanted to become a concert pianist", Matiko said, who began playing piano at just four years of age. "I had always been taught to stifle my emotions, so if something upset me, I would go to my piano and play an angry concerto." In high school, she auditioned for the Young Americans
The Young Americans
The Young Americans is a non-profit organization and performing group based in Southern California. First founded in 1962 by Milton C. Anderson, the group is credited with being the first show choir in America, mixing choreography with choral singing...
where she was taught singing, dancing and performing in a conservatory setting.
She was an Environmental Engineering
Environmental engineering
Environmental engineering is the application of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment , to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites...
major at UCLA. While still in college, she auditioned for the first national tour of Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
,and suddenly her career path took a sharp detour. She traded an ROTC scholarship for the role of "Gigi/Mimi" when she was picked by producer Cameron Macintosh at her first professional audition for the First National tour of Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
. Thus, Matiko set out to travel the country. While on the road, she continued taking academic classes at community colleges, in addition to acting, singing and dancing courses. From the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to the Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....
, she sought out the best instructions in virtually every city. While on the road in Boston, within hour of watching THE JOY LUCK CLUB with fellow cast member Minae Noji (General Hospital), Matiko decided she wanted to be a film actress. After leaving Miss Saigon, Matiko returned to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where she embarked on a rigorous regimen of acting lessons. "I feel I’ve been training like an Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
athlete.", Matiko said.
In 2008, Matiko finished her degree from UCLA during the Hollywood Writer's Strike.
Film and television
Marie Matiko is known for her starring roles as Julia in The Art of WarThe Art of War (film)
The Art of War is a 2000 Canadian-American action film directed by Christian Duguay, and starring Wesley Snipes, Michael Biehn, Anne Archer and Donald Sutherland...
and as Betty in the 2006 film Date Movie
Date Movie
Date Movie is a 2006 American parody film, which was directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, two of the writers of the first Scary Movie. Much of the story line was based on that of the well-known romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet The Fockers...
.
She has starred opposite leading men Craig T. Nelson
Craig T. Nelson
Craig Theodore Nelson is an American actor. He is probably best known for his Emmy-winning roles as Hayden Fox on the TV series Coach, and as Steve Freeling in the 1982 film Poltergeist. He also starred in The Incredibles in 2004 as Mr...
, Tom Sizemore
Tom Sizemore
Thomas Edward "Tom" Sizemore, Jr. is an American film and television actor and producer. He is known for his roles in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days, Pearl Harbor, Heat and Black Hawk Down....
, Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous action films, thrillers, and dramatic feature films. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high profile roles...
, Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg is an American actor, film and television producer, and former rapper. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier years, and became famous for his 1991 debut as a musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He was named No. 1 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of...
, Patrick Warburton
Patrick Warburton
Patrick John Warburton is an American actor of television, film, and voice. He is best known for his several TV roles, including the title role of The Tick, David Puddy on Seinfeld, the evil Johnny Johnson on NewsRadio, and anchorman Jeb Denton on Less Than Perfect...
and Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-Fat
Chow Yun-fat, SBS is an actor from Hong Kong. He is best known in Asia for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled; and to the West for his role as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...
. For her performance in The Art of War, she garnered the nomination for Best Actress in a Feature Film at the 2001 AX Awards (the Asian-American Film and TV awards). Matiko was one of the AX Awards Top 20 Newcomers in 2006.
In New Line Cinema's The Corruptor
The Corruptor
The Corruptor is a 1999 American action thriller film directed by James Foley, and starring Chow Yun-fat and Mark Wahlberg.-Plot:NYPD Lieutenant Nick Chen is one of New York City's police officers and is head of the Asian Gang Unit...
, produced by Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, Marie Lan Matiko debuted on film as the love interest of Chow Yun-Fat. Challenging acting work from the start, she won the role of May, a heroine-addict and indentured servant trapped by NY Chinatown’s Triads. Under the direction of James Foley
James Foley
James Foley is an American film director and screenwriter. He was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, the son of a lawyer...
(Glengarry Glen Ross
Glengarry Glen Ross
Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1984 play written by David Mamet. The play shows parts of two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of unethical, illegal acts—from lies and flattery to bribery, threats, intimidation and burglary—to sell...
), Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg share textured scene work alongside Matiko.
In Fox’s 2007 release Date Movie, Matiko made a notable comedic debut alongside Fred Willard
Fred Willard
Fred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...
and Jennifer Coolidge
Jennifer Coolidge
Jennifer Coolidge is an American actress best known for playing "Stifler's mom," the older woman in the film American Pie ; Hilary Duff's stepmother in A Cinderella Story ; Paulette, the manicurist in Legally Blonde and its sequel; the voice of Aunt Fanny in the animated feature Robots ; for her...
, playing Betty.
In the November 2007 release of Warner Brothers’ Dennis the Menace Christmas, Matiko plays alongside Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
and Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher is an American actress best known for her role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She also guest starred on the science fiction television series Heroes...
as Mrs. Walsh-Mellman, Dennis’s grade school teacher. Marie Matiko also voices the group therapist of Dennis's frustrated parents.
Additional film and television credits include Universal’s Mystery Men
Mystery Men
Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
, TBS’s Counterstrike
Counterstrike
Counterstrike may refer to:* Counterattack, a defensive military tactic.* Counterstrike * Counterstrike , a 1969 BBC science-fiction series* Counterstrike...
, CBS’s The District
The District
The District is a television police drama which aired on CBS from October 7, 2000 to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s Police Department .-Premise:...
and Michael Mann’s Robbery Homicide Division
Robbery Homicide Division
Robbery Homicide Division was an American police procedural television series on CBS, created by Barry Schindel with executive producer Michael Mann.-Premise:...
. Marie Matiko voiced Gong Li’s parts in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
and voiced opposite Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
and Patrick Warburton in the Carsey-WernerpProduction, UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
’s Game Over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
in television's first full-length CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
cartoon. She was also in Forbidden Warrior
Forbidden Warrior
Forbidden Warrior is a martial arts action/fantasy film, starring Marie Matiko, Sung Kang and Karl Yune. It was directed by Jimmy Nickerson, and produced by Glen Hartford and Daniel Toll....
, where Matiko plays Seki, the forbidden warrior. Matiko was also on the popular TV series Xena
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
playing the roles of Pao Ssu and K'ao Hsin, the twin daughters of Xena's spiritual mentor, Lao Ma
Lao Ma
Lao Ma is a fictional character in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. She is portrayed by Korean-American actress Jacqueline Kim. Lao Ma is first introduced in the series in a two-episode story arc comprising The Debt Part I and Part II. The first episode has Xena, relating to Gabrielle...
. Her characters are on several collectible XENA: THE WARRIOR PRINCESS trading cards. Concerning her time on Xena, she stated:
Film listing
- The CorruptorThe CorruptorThe Corruptor is a 1999 American action thriller film directed by James Foley, and starring Chow Yun-fat and Mark Wahlberg.-Plot:NYPD Lieutenant Nick Chen is one of New York City's police officers and is head of the Asian Gang Unit...
- Mystery MenMystery MenMystery Men is a 1999 comedy film based on a Dark Horse comic book series feature in Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It stars William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who...
- The Art of WarThe Art of War (film)The Art of War is a 2000 Canadian-American action film directed by Christian Duguay, and starring Wesley Snipes, Michael Biehn, Anne Archer and Donald Sutherland...
as Julia Fang - Gang of RosesGang of RosesGang of Roses is a 2003 Western action drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude La Marre. It starred Monica Calhoun, Lil' Kim, Lisa Raye, Charity Hill, Bobby Brown, Stacy Dash, and Marie Matiko.-Plot:...
as Zang Li - Forbidden WarriorForbidden WarriorForbidden Warrior is a martial arts action/fantasy film, starring Marie Matiko, Sung Kang and Karl Yune. It was directed by Jimmy Nickerson, and produced by Glen Hartford and Daniel Toll....
as Seki - Date MovieDate MovieDate Movie is a 2006 American parody film, which was directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, two of the writers of the first Scary Movie. Much of the story line was based on that of the well-known romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet The Fockers...
as Betty Lan Orchid - The Civilization of Maxwell BrightThe Civilization of Maxwell BrightThe Civilization of Maxwell Bright is a 2005 romance film starring Patrick Warburton, Marie Matiko, Eric Roberts, Leland Crooke and Jennifer Tilly that has seen success on the arthouse movie circuit. It has won awards at the WorldFest Houston, New York VisionFest, Florida Film Festival, Boulder...
as Mai Ling - DiggersDiggers (film)Diggers is a coming-of-age film directed by Katherine Dieckmann. It portrays four working-class friends who grow up in The Hamptons, on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, as clam diggers in 1976. Their fathers were clam diggers as well as their grandfathers before them...
Keiko - Dennis the Menace Christmas Mrs. Walsh-Mellman
Television listing
- XenaXena: Warrior PrincessXena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
- CounterstrikeCounterstrikeCounterstrike may refer to:* Counterattack, a defensive military tactic.* Counterstrike * Counterstrike , a 1969 BBC science-fiction series* Counterstrike...
- The DistrictThe DistrictThe District is a television police drama which aired on CBS from October 7, 2000 to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s Police Department .-Premise:...
- Robbery Homicide DivisionRobbery Homicide DivisionRobbery Homicide Division was an American police procedural television series on CBS, created by Barry Schindel with executive producer Michael Mann.-Premise:...
Outside acting
- Marie Lan Matiko speaks five languages and has a reputation as a philanthropist.
- In her fun time, she enjoys extreme sports, skateboardSkateboardA skateboard is typically a specially designed plywood board combined with a polyurethane coating used for making smoother slides and stronger durability, used primarily for the activity of skateboarding. The first skateboards to reach public notice came out of the surfing craze of the early 1960s,...
ing, snowboardSnowboardSnowboards are boards, usually with a width the length of one's foot, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards are differentiated from monoskis by the stance of the user...
ing, scubaScuba divingScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, and environmental science.
- Matiko founded and ran the non-profit Vivace Conservatory, with co-founder Ariel Felix. VIVACE, is a successful non-profit performing arts school located in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. The purpose of the organization is to nurture pride, self-discipline and passion in disadvantaged inner-city youth and minorities for the arts. in regards to Vivace, she stated:
- Matiko was the celebrity spokesperson for the California Asian American Democratic Caucus.
- Matiko also sits on the board of advisors for the San Diego Asian American Film Festival, has been invited to present at UCIUniversity of California, IrvineThe University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
, UCLA, NY, SIFF and SDSDSD may refer to:* Salvia Divinorum* Southern Cross Decoration , a South African military award* Stage directions* Sisters of the Destitute, a Syro-Malabar Catholic women's order* Spasmodic dysphonia...
film festivals, the National Association of Asian Professionals, along with a number of universities in AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.