Iko Yuvays (real name Yuvays Korni) is an Indonesian actor who began his creative career in 2007 with the film Merantau. It is known to the audience by the films: "Raid", "Raid 2", "Raid: A bullet in the head", "22 miles". Despite the fact that Iko still does not have many movie roles, he is prophesied a bright future and is called the second Jackie Chan.
At an early age, Yuvays began to actively engage in Indonesian martial art - penchak silat. Soon, he already won prizes at tournaments held in his hometown of Jakarta. And a few years later he became the champion of Indonesia.
To popularize this sport, Iko traveled with a professional sports team to many countries, including: England, Russia, Cambodia, France, Azerbaijan.
Yuvays's creative biography began after meeting director G. Evans, who worked on a documentary about the martial arts of Indonesia. Iko took part in the filming. And after the release of the picture, he was already invited to the full-length tape of Evans - "Merantau", where he demonstrated mastery of the Silat Harimau style.
early years
The boy was born in Indonesia in the winter of 1983. When he was ten years old, his father sent Iko to study at a sports school, where he began to master martial arts. This school was founded by grandfather Iko, and his uncle became the teacher of the boy. The main focus of the school was teaching young men the style of penchak silat, which at that time was practically unknown in the world.
In addition to practicing martial arts, Iko began to get involved in football. He achieved high results and even entered the national team. After some time, the club, for which Iko played, declared bankruptcy. And the young man decided to completely surrender to the study of the penchak silat.
Soon he became one of the best representatives of the martial arts school, and in 2005 - the champion of Indonesia.
Iko never dreamed of an acting career. He devoted himself entirely to sports, and in his spare time worked as a courier in one of the telephone companies.
Film career
After meeting with the director G. Evans, whom Iko starred in a documentary about Indonesian martial arts, he was offered to try himself as an actor. He agreed. And in 2009, the action movie “Merantau” was released, where Iko played his debut major role.
As Iko himself recalled, before the start of filming, he could not believe that he would really get the main role in the project and would act in films. Only after the first day of work did he realize that everything that was happening was real. The film was well received by the audience and, after a successful rental, Evans invited Yuvays to continue cooperation.
A few years later the action movie "Raid" was released. Actors starred without understudies and themselves put all the difficult tricks. On the set, Iko was seriously injured, but this did not stop him from continuing to work and demonstrate all his skills and sports skills.
The film was released in 2011. At the Toronto Film Festival, the film won the Audience Award.
Inspired by the success, Evans transgresses to the shooting of the second part of the film, where Iko gets the main role again. “Raid 2” was released in 2014 and was also a huge success with the audience.
Two years later, the third film of this series was titled Raid: A Bullet in the Head. But this time, the directors of the picture were K. Istanbul and T. Tiaganto.
In the interval between the second and third parts of the Raid, Iko agreed to play the cameo role of Razu Qin-Fi in the seventh episode of Star Wars.
From 2017 to 2019, Iko worked on several projects: Skyline 2, 22 miles, Night is following us, and Triple Threat.
He also signed a contract with the famous company Procter & Gamble. And starred in an advertisement for the famous Head & Shoulders shampoo.
