During his youth he received martial arts training, first in Fullerton, California, and then he went over to Japan, where he originally found work as an English teacher but also continued his martial arts training. He continued his training there and by 1985, already back in the United States, Seagal was working as a choreographer for a number of action scenes in movies. His career in film began thanks to talent agent Michael Ovitz, who had been his martial arts student for years. Ovitz introduced him to producer Andrew Davis, with whom he would eventually make his first film, Above the Law, in 1987.