Hiro Nakamura, the computer/anime enthusiast
Masi Oka stars in NBC's new ensemble drama series "Heroes" as Hiro Nakamura, a Tokyo nonconformist computer/anime enthusiast who develops a way to pierce the space-time continuum and move back in time through sheer will power. No stranger to television, Oka has had recurring roles on NBC's "Scrubs" as Franklyn and "Luis" as Deng Wu. He also guest-starred on "Without a Trace," "Joey," "Reba," "The Loop," "All of Us," "Still Standing," "Will & Grace," "Yes, Dear" and "Gilmore Girls." His feature-film credits include memorable roles in "Along Came Polly," "Austin Powers in Goldmember" and "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim." With a background in improvisation, Oka has performed on the stages of Second City, ImprovOlympics, The Groundlings, and TheatreSports. His improvisational expertise has been showcased with guest appearances as various characters on "Punk'd," "Reno 911" and "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment." After graduating from Brown University with degrees in mathematics and computer science and a theatre arts minor, Oka pursued an acting career while taking his first job at George Lucas' Oscar-winning special effects house Industrial Light & Magic. Today, despite his successful career as an actor, he continues to provide ILM with technology for groundbreaking effects for more than 30 films. Oka was born in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to Los Angeles at age six, where he currently resides. He is fluent in Japanese and proficient in Spanish. His hobbies include Kendo (Japanese sword fighting), playing video games, watching and writing romantic comedies, playing the piano, and singing. His birthday is December 27.

So far he is my favourite character. He's just so excited.

I didn't realize until reading the online comic that Hiro's name comes from Hiroshima. I assumed it was like "Hero". Pretty interesting.

This another character that I'm confused about what exactly is his power. Why is it that when he used his mind powers to go to the US and also changed the time? Instead of being in Tokyo one minute and the US the next, he apparently skipped several days. Did he stand still while the Earth rotated until several days later when New York City was in the spot where Tokyo had been? I'm guessing that he can't make time go any faster or slower for others. He can only influence where he is on the space/time continuum. If that makes any sense.

Something strikes me as being off about Hiro's experience at the casino. I would think if someone started having multiple wins, the casino would get suspicious and review the security footage of them. They can zoom and slow things down frame by frame to see what happened. Even if he was able to manipulate time so he was too fast for them to see, they would have seen that the other guy had the three aces and then suddenly Hiro's friend had them. If they really suspected Hiro of cheating, I don't think they would have let him walk away with his winnings or tossed him out. They would have had casino security hold him and his friend and called the police. If Hiro had been smart, instead of taking the one guy's aces, which he should have known the guy would notice, he should have gotten cards from the dealer's deck.

Hiro has really grown on me. In the beginning, I thought his naivete was too over the top and not believable but now I enjoy his reactions. Rather than being confused or scared by seeing things he'd never dreamed possible before, he experiences pure joy at them. I suppose it would be thrilling if you were into superheroes and comic books and suddenly found you had superpowers and started finding other people who had them as well. It will be interesting to see how Hiro changes from the person he is now to the person we see him as in the future.