Tim Kang is an American actor best known for his TV roles as Kimball Cho on "The Mentalist" (CBS, 2008-2015) and as Ivan Ness on the superhero series "Cloak & Dagger" (Freeform, 2018- ). Born and raised in San Francisco, Kang never intended on becoming an actor. In fact, he earned his Bachelor's degree in political science from U.C. Berkeley, and after graduation went on to work in the financial sector at the Pacific Exchange in San Francisco. However, Kang quickly grew bored from working with numbers all day and on a whim decided to sign up for acting classes.
After a few classes Kang had come to the realization that he had found his calling in acting. He was 26. With this newfound passion, Kang found it difficult to focus on his job in the financial sector. So he quit to focus on acting full-time. Kang eventually went on to study the craft at Harvard University's prestigious American Repertory Theater, and would go on to earn his M.F.A. in acting from the school.
It was also around this period that Kang began nabbing film roles in movies like "Two Weeks Notice" (2002), "Robot Stories" (2003) and "Justice" (2003). He nabbed his very first recurring TV role in 2004 on NBC's "Third Watch" (NBC, 1999-2005), and followed that up with guest spots on "Ghost Whisperer" (CBS, 2005-2010), "Monk" (USA Network, 2002-09), and "The Office" (NBC, 2005-2013). Then in 2008 Kang landed his breakout role as Kimball Cho on the CBS mystery crime series "The Mentalist." Kang played the part of Cho on all 151 episodes of the show's seven season run.
After "The Mentalist" ended its run in 2015, Kang continued landing parts in TV shows and films like "The Vampire Diaries" (The CW, 2009-2017) and "A Wrinkle In Time" (2018). Then in 2018 he nabbed a recurring role on the Freeform superhero series "Cloak & Dagger." Kang played Ivan Hess on the series, which premiered in 2018.