Biography
Eidan Hanzei doesn't just portray samurai warriors and profound thinkers for the screen, they're in his blood - literally.
Eidan's mother comes from a line of samurai warriors and athletes; and his father from a lineage of monks and philosophers. Growing up in the small beach town of Encinitas, California, Eidan would never have imagined how much the traditions of both heritages would influence not only his life but also the roles that he would embrace in his career years later.
Born on December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, and to a direct survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, his mother, Eidan was destined to have a determination. After receiving his Criminal Justice degree from San Diego State University, Eidan realized life as an undercover agent was not in the cards. Instead, he discovered his passion for acting and headed to Hollywood, taking his knowledge of the criminal world with him in crafting interesting, cutting-edge characters.
It wasn't long before Eidan was a working actor in film and television, including roles in SGT. Bilko, Blue Streak, and Star Trek. But it was with the feature film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, which Eidan's ancestral samurai spirit was unleashed as he beat out thousands of other actors to portray a character based on Nobunaga Oda, one of Japan's most famous daimyo during the late 16th century and a real-life ancestor to Eidan on his mother's side. Several years later, after a world-wide casting search, Eidan's samurai essence was rekindled when he was cast as Nobunaga Oda's most trusted warlord and friend, Ukita, in the British television production of Heroes & Villains: Shogun as well as starring in the samurai film The Lone Warrior shortly thereafter.
Eidan has also turned to his legacy of truth-seekers for inspiration when he was cast as Hugh Laurie's doppelganger in the Emmy winning season finale of House, and as a doctor looking for answers opposite William Shatner in Boston Legal. Most recently, Eidan has appeared on Castle, 2 Broke Girls, The Young & The Restless and several appearances on the police drama Southland.
As a screenwriter, Eidan has completed seven screenplays, optioning three of them and garnering industry attention from the likes of Jim Whitaker at Imagine Entertainment, producer Allan Kaufman, Snoop Dogg, Jacob Vargas and director Clark Johnson.
Eidan's current writing-producing project has him partnered with writer-director Ben Ramsey for The Ministry, an action series for television described as "X-Files on steroids."
