BYRON MANN first burst onto the Hollywood radar in the action-adventure Streetfighter, starring opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme and the late Raul Julia. A month after Streetfighter wrapped, Mann segued into another starring role in Crying Freeman, an action-thriller cult film based on one of the world's most popular anime comic-book by renowned illustrator Ryoichi Ikegami.

In the courtroom thriller Red Corner, directed by Jon Avnet, Mann starred opposite Richard Gere as a charismatic Beijing princeling who holds the secret to the film's murder mystery. Shortly afterward, Mann played the sexy villain opposite Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-Fat in the Oliver Stone-produced cop drama, The Corruptor, directed by James Foley. Returning to his roots, Mann worked for renowned Hong Kong director Tony Ching in Invincible, a state-of-the-art martial arts action film, starring opposite Billy Zane, and produced by Mel Gibson and Jet Li. During that time, Mann also co-starred in James Cameron's hit TV series, Dark Angel, recurring as Detective Matt Sung, a sympathetic detective protecting the series' heroine, played by Jessica Alba.

In early 2003, Mann rejoined with director Tony Ching and starred opposite Steven Seagal in Belly of the Beast, playing a CIA operative who risks his life to save Seagal's character in the political thriller set in Thailand. That Fall, Mann co-starred with Halley Berry and Sharon Stone in Warner Brothers' Catwoman playing a corporate executive who works with Stone's character to battle against Catwoman. In 2004, Mann starred opposite Oscar-nominee Tom Berenger in Sniper 3, playing a Vietnamese undercover detective who partners with Berenger's character to hunt down a renegade American G.I. in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City. Mann and Berenger develop a father-son relationship through the course of the film. Mann most-recently top-lined the Italian horror film The Counting House, the first co-production between Italy and Hong Kong, directed by well-known Italian commercial director duo Dipertos - Carlo Giudice and Paolo Marcellini.

A child of a cosmopolitan upbringing, Mann was brought up by an American-Chinese mother and attended a British boarding school in Hong Kong where he spent much of his youth. Having won many theatre awards in high-school, Mann attended the University of California in Los Angeles where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in philosophy with Phi Beta Kappa honours. He then attended law school at the University of Southern California, but soon realized that the legal profession was not his cup of tea. He returned to Hong Kong to soul-search, only to find himself acting in commercials and films there. Within weeks, he was hired for the NBC telefilm The Last Flight Out, which was shot in Thailand and cast out of Hong Kong; the producer of that film suggested that Mann return to Los Angeles where he could study acting and develop as an actor. He took his advice, returned to Los Angeles, and never looked back.

An accomplished martial artist, Mann is fluent in Chinese and has a solid fan base both in Asia and the U.S. He is a championship-calibre tennis player, having won many junior-circuit tennis tournaments. He is also an avid golfer, and resides in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Hong Kong.