Nelson Lee

Nelson Lee (born October 16, 1975) is a Canadian actor. He portrays Dr. Shiro Ito/Dragon King as a series regular in the first season of Stargirl.^[1] He returns for guest appearances in the second and third season. The later of which he voices Dragon King who is in the body of an albino gorilla. His voice was altered slightly in post-production to accommodate the change in body.

Career[]

Nelson is best known for his guest-starring roles on dozens of television shows across multiple genres. He has over forty-five credits on IMDb. He previously worked with Neil Jackson and Geoff Johns on Blade: The Series in 2006, which is when he befriended both of them.

He has guest-starred on three Law & Order television series installment, playing five characters over the course of his appearances. He also appeared on procedural shows such as NCIS and CSI. He also starred in the 2020 Disney feature film, Mulan as Chancellor.

In 2019, Nelson was cast in a recurring role as Dr. Shiro Ito/Dragon King, a controversial scientist in the DC Universe and The CW series, Stargirl.

Trivia[]

Nelson was in New Zealand filming Mulan when he got a call from Geoff Johns who wanted him for a part in Stargirl. Nelson sent in a self-tape and was cast later that year.
He had to wear special contacts that create the reptilian blinking effect. He remarks that they are painful and took a long time to put on at first. Over time, they were able to put the contacts in with under five minutes.
His DK costume was extremely hot so he had to have an industrial-sized fan that he called for frequently to cool him off.
- Because of the heat of the costume he never did his stunts.
- He frequently fell over when walking backward in the costume due to his long cape.
Picking the perfect Dragon King voice was a matter of elimination. The initial voice was extremely old, breathy, and shaky. Three takes into "Wildcat" Geoff Johns and the rest of the few approached him and asked him to try a different voice.
Nelson claims that Dragon King does genuinely love his daughter, but in a more detached way than most, saying, "His version of fatherly love is far more removed and scientific than a traditional father-daughter relationship. Which is why he also sees his daughter as a protégé, as a living experiment to achieve greatness in human form. There’s not a lot of hugging going on in their relationship."