is an American actress, best known for her roles as
Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana in the 2016
superhero film
A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature Action film, ac ...
''
Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad is an antihero/supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first version of the Suicide Squad debuted in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #25 (September 1959) and the second and modern version, cre ...
'' and as
Kimiko Miyashira/The Female in the
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...
original series ''
The Boys'' (2019–present). Fukuhara is also known for voicing the character
Glimmer
In bioinformatics, GLIMMER (Gene Locator and Interpolated Markov ModelER) is used to find genes in prokaryotic DNA. "It is effective at finding genes in bacteria, archea, viruses, typically finding 98-99% of all relatively long protein coding g ...
from the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
series ''
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' is an American Animated series, animated streaming television series developed by ND Stevenson and produced by DreamWorks Animation Television. Like the 1985 Filmation series ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' ...
'' and Kipo from ''
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
''Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts'' is an animated television series created by Radford Sechrist and developed by Bill Wolkoff, adapted from Rad's 2015 webcomic ''Kipo''. The series is produced by American company DreamWorks Animation Televisi ...
.''
Early life and education
Fukuhara was born to Japanese parents in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Her
first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
was
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, and she attended Japanese language school on Saturdays for 11 years.
She has a younger brother.
Fukuhara began practicing
karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
in middle school,
and became a brown-striped belt before leaving for college.
Fukuhara attended
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA) while working as a reporter for a sports show on
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
in Japan.
She was a member of the
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
group Medleys, whose alumni include fellow actress
Kelly Marie Tran
Kelly Marie Tran (born Loan Tran, January 17, 1989) is an American actress. She began acting in 2011, with most of her roles being in short film and television. She came to global prominence for her role as Rose Tico in the ''Star Wars'' seque ...
.
Fukuhara graduated from UCLA in 2014 with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in Sociology and a minor in Theater.
Career
Fukuhara got her start in the entertainment industry in middle school when she was cast as a host for ''
Movie Surfers
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
'', a short form entertainment news program on the
Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
.
Prior to her acting debut, Fukuhara worked various part-time jobs, including as a
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
,
subtitle editor, and
waitress
Waiting staff (British English), waitstaff (North American English), waiters (male) / waitresses (female), or servers (North American English), are those who work at a restaurant, a diner, or a bar and sometimes in private homes, attending ...
at a
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
-themed sushi restaurant.
In 2016, Fukuhara made her film debut as
Katana
A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...
in the
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
superhero film ''
Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad is an antihero/supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first version of the Suicide Squad debuted in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #25 (September 1959) and the second and modern version, cre ...
'', which was released in August 2016.
Although she had prior martial arts experience, Fukuhara trained for about two months during pre-production in order to learn how to wield a sword correctly.
In 2019, Fukuhara appeared in ''Stray'' (alongside
Christine Woods
Christine Woods (born September 3, 1983) is an American actress who notably appeared in the HBO series ''Hello Ladies''. She previously portrayed FBI Special Agent Janis Hawk in the ABC series ''FlashForward''.
Early life
Woods was b ...
,
Miyavi
, better known by his stage name Miyavi (雅, stylized as MIYAVI), is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger- slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitaris ...
, and
Ross Partridge).
Fukuhara voiced the characters Sewer Queen and Alexis in the
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
series ''
Craig of the Creek
''Craig of the Creek'' is an American animated television series created by Matt Burnett and Ben Levin for Cartoon Network. The show's pilot episode debuted directly on the official app on December 1, 2017. The series premiered online on February ...
''. In 2018, she began voicing
Glimmer
In bioinformatics, GLIMMER (Gene Locator and Interpolated Markov ModelER) is used to find genes in prokaryotic DNA. "It is effective at finding genes in bacteria, archea, viruses, typically finding 98-99% of all relatively long protein coding g ...
in ''
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' is an American Animated series, animated streaming television series developed by ND Stevenson and produced by DreamWorks Animation Television. Like the 1985 Filmation series ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' ...
'', a
reboot
In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...
of the
1985 animated television series.
In 2019, she began starring as
Kimiko in the Amazon Prime series ''
The Boys'', based on
the comic book of the same name.
In 2020, she voiced the titular lead character of ''
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
''Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts'' is an animated television series created by Radford Sechrist and developed by Bill Wolkoff, adapted from Rad's 2015 webcomic ''Kipo''. The series is produced by American company DreamWorks Animation Televisi ...
''.
The series is based on the short-lived
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be co ...
named ''Kipo''.
Filmography
Video games
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuhara, Karen
1992 births
Living people
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Los Angeles
American actresses of Japanese descent
American film actors of Asian descent
American film actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
Venice High School (Los Angeles) alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni