Kalai Strode was born in 1946 in Hollywood, California, making him a part of the "baby boomer" generation. His father, Woody Strode, was a football player for the Los Angeles Rams, alongside quarterback Kenny Washington, while his mother, Luukialuana Kealohapauole Kaluhiokalani, was a hula dancer for the Harry Owens band.
The family lived in a two-story house called "Tortilla Flats" with other Polynesian entertainers who worked in the movies or performed at various clubs in Hollywood. In 1948, they moved to a little farm in Montebello, an eastern suburb of Los Angeles, where his father played for the Calgary Stampeders in Canada and won the Grey Cup that year.
After his father's football injury led him to switch to wrestling, the family moved to East Los Angeles in 1950. Kalai spent the next 22 years there, attending Mariana Elementary School, David Wark Griffith Junior High School, and James A. Garfield High School. He was an active student, serving as 11th grade class president, student body vice-president, and student body president at Garfield, graduating in 1965 with a physics major.
Kalai then attended East Los Angeles College for a semester before entering UCLA in September 1965. During his junior year, he spent a year in Mitaka, Japan, studying Japanese and Haiku at the International Christian University. He graduated from UCLA in 1969 with a BA in Oriental Languages and later earned a Master's Degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii in 1971.
Kalai worked as a guide for the American Pavilion at EXPO 70 in Osaka, Japan, and conducted post-graduate research in Kyoto in 1972. He moved to Glendora, California, that year and took some time off from academia to work various jobs until 1976.
Kalai was accepted into the Assistant Directors Training Program and started working on "Roots!" in 1976. He completed his trainee program in 1978 and became a member of the Directors Guild of America. He has one son, Joshua Strode, who is also working in the movie industry.
Kalai has worked on numerous projects, including 170 episodes of "Diagnosis Murder" with Dick Van Dyke and his son, Barry Van Dyke. He plans to retire from assistant directing and move to Hawaii in the future.
