Kimball Cho is a fictional character portrayed by Tim Kang on the American TV crime drama The Mentalist.

[4] A native of Oakland, California,[5] Cho had a colorful adolescence, having been an aspiring baseball player and then a member of the local ethnic gang "Avon Park Playboys".

[2] The turning point came when he shot the gang leader KS in the shoulder because he was planning for the Playboys to conduct a home invasion in which Cho did not wish to take part.

[6][7] Cho's parents were immigrants from Korea[5] and the character, like actor Tim Kang, is able to speak some Korean.

Due to his former gang affiliations and military background he is street savvy and also highly proficient in and has an extensive knowledge of firearms.

Fellow CBI agent Sam Bosco even nicknamed Rigsby and Cho "Bert and Ernie" respectively after the eponymous Sesame Street characters.

The pickpocket steals Cho's car, and is later caught and held at CBI headquarters until foster care can take him.

At the end of the episode, father and son are reunited, and Cho laughs as Rigsby reacts to having had his wallet stolen.

[8] Two years after the events in the episode "Red John", it is revealed that Cho has joined the FBI and had spent months in Quantico for training.

He evidently cared deeply for Elise, because after masked men threatened the pair of them and hit her, he became determined to find who they were.

He avoids alcohol, as shown in the episode "His Red Right Hand" when the other agents are drinking shots of tequila in memory of their dead colleagues.

Also, in the episode "A Price Above Rubies", Lisbon accepts a glass of champagne whereas Cho does not at a black tie event they were both attending.

After Summer proves to be emotionally immature and damaged, Cho encourages her to move to Seattle to live with her sister and enroll in community college.