As an 8-year-old in the early ’90s, J. Elijah Cho loved to play the Nintendo game Mega Man. He’d show off his controller tricks to his dad, an Air Force computer engineer and artist, who introduced him to Atari games like Pitfall when he was just out of diapers.
Wherever the Korean-American military family relocated — from Fort Walton Beach to North Dakota to Germany to Korea — video games, computers and other clunky devices of the time were a constant in the Cho household.
“We had one of the incarnations of the Apple II,” Cho said. “That and I saw the evolution of the PCs from an i286, i386, i486 to the Pentium processors we have now. My dad would build the computers from parts he’d purchase.”
Two decades and a slew of upgrades later, the Tampa-based actor is portraying one of the coders responsible for the proto-maze games he navigated with his dad. Cho’s character Wonderboy is among a throng of young programming geeks on Season Two of Halt and Catch Fire, which premieres on AMC this Sunday night at 10 p.m.
Wearing the trademark blue Mega Man t-shirt — which longtime girlfriend and fellow actor, Emily Belvo, bought him for Christmas — Cho says that he’s glad to be playing the geeky coder during the “Gamergate” controversy of today.
“As a gamer, it’s exciting to see the growing pains the industry’s going through now,” he says. “The fact Halt and Catch Fire is tackling video games this season is very timely. There’s a very vocal majority saying they want more diversity in video games, and why not? Gaming is a social thing — everyone should be invited to the party.”
Set in the early 1980s, the series captures the power struggles of the PC boom through four main characters. Tensions brew as the show’s barely legal geek squad hunkers down in a Texas house (filmed in Atlanta) coding video games. James Cromwell guest stars as a shifty tycoon who wants to capitalize on it all.
“I met James Cromwell at the wrap party,” Cho shares. “Very tall… and very polite!”
Cho adds that he has lines every now and then over the course of his eight episodes as an employee at Cameron and Donna’s new start-up, Mutiny. Fellow geeks include Nick Pupo (Carl), a stand-up comedian from Orlando, and Josh Hoover (Bodie), who appeared in a Mountain Dew Kickstart commercial that aired during the last Super Bowl.
Careful not to give away too much, Cho praises the series for having two women launch a start-up. “I feel like those types of icons have been under-represented,” he says.
Cho’s agent, Darcy Britton-Kant of Level Talent Agency, helped the 30-year-old actor — who goes by Jonathan Cho locally — land the part. He drove eight hours to Atlanta for a callback. The casting director told him, “We’ll probably see a version of you in the show.” After puzzling that cryptic tidbit for a day, Cho got the news that he’d won the role. The announcement interrupted his stint as Romeo in the debut production of the Tampa Shakespeare Festival, staged in Water Works Park in March. Cho says his castmates and director were understanding and supportive when he had to resign from the play.
“I’ve really held strong with this belief that with technology in this day and age, you shouldn’t have to move to New York, Chicago or L.A.”
For this interview, Cho suggested we meet at Stone Soup Cafe in Ybor City and wanted to give the spot a plug; it’s where he says he nursed on delicious soups while sick and between rehearsals for The Full Monty at the Cuban Club in 2012. As we enjoyed hearty lobster bisque, a pattern started to emerge: Cho never talks about any situation without crediting, complimenting or thanking others. A natural-born collaborator, Cho always involves others. From creating websites with local theater news (local-stages.com) to forming a sketch comedy troupe called Some Sort of Show, Cho has an interactive approach to all of his projects and makes a point to go out to support his fellow actors in their productions. He even admits that he’s terrible at team sports because he’s not competitive enough. His friendliness, he says, he gets from his Army Reserve/school nurse mom, who outranks his dad.
With TV, Cho says there’s a lot more waiting around. “I loved, for the most part, that I could meet all the crew. … I got to play Dungeon World with one of the props guys and some of the PAs … It was a lot of fun, but I wish I could do more stuff like that with crew people here.”
Cho lives in Seminole Heights with roommate, actor/director Jack Holloway of Hat Trick Theatre Productions — the company he’s been involved with through most of his career. While working with the troupe, which is now in residence at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Cho helped build sets and loved how it was all very DIY. “That’s one of the things that weirds me out about Equity — that as an actor I’m unable to hang something up or move something,” Cho says, adding that he doesn’t belong to the theater or TV union. But he may have to join SAG soon.
Recent, well-received turns in Jobsite Theater’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom showcased both the actor’s musical talents and comedic skills. “The biggest challenge of Sodom was having to play the accordion,” Cho said of the part, that also required him to be shirtless in pleather pants.
Cho’s next stage role will be in Jobsite’s upcoming satire, Occupation, opening July 8. He plays Zang Ze Dong, a leader in a new Chinese province — in Florida! After Occupation, Cho is following his agent’s advice to take a break from theater productions — “to keep striking while the iron’s hot,” he says. “I have to update my IMDB — it’s like a whole new world. I’ve been more active on social media.”
Cho is not the only locally nurtured actor to make it recently in major TV series or films. USF grad Grace Gealey, a classmate of Cho’s, is playing Anika, aka Boo Boo Kitty, on Empire. Dahlia Legault attracted lots of fan buzz in a near-death turn on The Walking Dead. Vincent Stalba has a CBS pilot and a Hank Williams biopic in the works. And Eugenie Bondurant of the Patel Conservatory is playing Tigris in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, to be released Nov. 20.
Cho, who plans to stay put in Tampa and keep building support systems for local actors, says the Tampa-Hollywood successes can’t help but make things better for the other talented actors trying to make it.
“I’ve really held strong with this belief that with technology in this day and age and how easy it is to connect, you shouldn’t have to move to New York, Chicago or L.A.,” he said.
As for that dream role, Cho says he’s going to lobby Capcom to license a motion-picture franchise of Mega Man.
