Mayuka Thaïs (born September 25, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, voice over artist, art educator, and

edutainer Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental en ...

. She is known for her role as a bilingual singer and actress on the popular television program Shimajiro.

Early life and career beginnings

Thaïs was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to a Caucasian American mother

Teri Suzanne Teri Suzanne (born August 18, 1948) is an American bilingual actress, freehand cut paper artist, author, children's songwriter, and creator of the first bilingual family theatre program and theatre group Performing Arts Group (P.A.G) at the Ao ...

; her late father 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 ...

. She worked in the

edutainment Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment ...

industry as a studio singer, actress, and voice over artist, for

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

multi-media

products from the age of 5 for

Nippon Columbia , often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...

. For 13 years she honed her acting skills while studying at

Aoyama Theatre The was a theatre at the in Shibuya, Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropol ...

in the round, bilingual Performing Arts Group, at the National Children's Castle's

At the age of 10, Thaïs won the

Tokyo Metropolitan Government The is the government of the Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 56 prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The headquarters building is located in the ward of Shinjuku. The metropolitan government ...

art award. Her notable role came when she became the main singer, actress on a popular children's television show Shimajiro In 2007, Thaïs graduated and received her BFA from

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

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' ...

with ''HONORS'' majoring in Fine Arts Painting and A.C.T. (Artists, Community, & Teaching). Thaïs is currently an instructor at

Music

At the age of 5, Thaïs recorded a Christmas album ''Minna De Merry Christmas'' with multiracial children for

. To date, Thais has worked on 14 albums and countless singles. In 2004 Thaïs recorded ''Genki Genki Utaou

Nontan is the protagonist of an eponymous series of children's picture books written by . Books from the series have been translated into French and Chinese and adapted into an anime series in 1992 (where his voice was provided by Chiaki Fujimoto and ...

's'' bilingual Christmas album for

along with her sister

Kunimi Andrea Kunimi Andrea (born April 27, 1977) is an American singer, actress, voice over artist and edutainer. Andrea is known for her role as the main singer, actress on a popular children's television show Shimajiro for ''Playtime for Toddlers''. Earl ...

, and her mother

. With the help of contributors on her

Pledge Music PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...

campaign, her album ''Tusks & Horns'' was produced by

Geoff Levin Geoff Levin (born September 14, 1945) is an American rock musician, film/television composer and songwriter. Performing as part of the Black Mountain Boys with Jerry Garcia in the early years of his career, in 1968 his own group, People!, scored ...

People! People! was a one-hit wonder rock band that was formed in San Jose, California in 1965. Their greatest chart success came with their summer hit single "I Love You". The song, written by The Zombies bass guitarist Chris White, rose to number ...

in May 2014. Thaïs has shared the stage with artists such as

Mayu Wakisaka is a singer-songwriter, composer, and lyricist based in Tokyo, Japan. Mayu grew up in Osaka, Japan, and studied law at Kyoto University. In 2007, she quit law school to pursue her career as a singer-songwriter and moved to Los Angeles. While stu ...

The Watanabes The Watanabes are a 1960s influenced British indie pop rock band based in Tokyo whose lyrics are often inspired by life in Japan. Musical style The band's jangly alt pop sound has drawn comparisons to melody driven indie acts such as Belle and ...

Nesian Mystik Nesian Mystik was a New Zealand Hip hop music, hip-hop/Contemporary R&B, R&B group which formed in 1999. The cultural backgrounds of its members united a remarkable diversity of Polynesia by bringing together Cook Islands, Cook Island, Tongans, ...

, and many others.

Art

At the age of 10, Thaïs won the

art award. In 2007, Thaïs's painting of a life-size Asian Elephant was exhibited at the Palos Verdes Art Center as part of a group show ''The Circus Comes to Town'' curated by Scott Canty.

Activism

On December 13, 2006, when Thaïs was an art student at

, she took her painting of an elephant in captivity to a town hall meeting to lend her voice to discuss conditions of elephants in captivity. In 2007, Thaïs released her first independent single ''When Elephants Cry'' on YouTube to help raise awareness of the plight of Elephants in captivity. She was asked to perform this song at the

Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

for a recognition dinner of high-profile celebrities including

Jorja Fox Jorja-An Fox ( ) is an American actress and producer. She first came to prominence with a recurring role in the NBC medical drama '' ER'' as Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring ro ...

, comedian

Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the vari ...

and former Los Angeles

City Councilman A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council ...

Tony Cardenas Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

and current

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

. In 2014, she was asked to march for the Global March for Elephants & Rhinos in

and to sing her song ''Tusks & Horns'' at the United Nations Plaza with her producer

on guitar. In 2015, she went on her ''Tusks & Horns'' tour and toured Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kagawa, and Tokyo, Japan. She gave hanga artworkshops for children, art students, and families in hopes of raising and spreading awareness of the plight of endangered Elephants & Rhinos. She also joined in the march for the Global March for Elephants & Rhinos in Tokyo.

Peace song for Hiroshima

In August 2015, Thaïs performed her song ''Yamayuri no Kimochi'' for the 70th war memorial in Hiroshima at the Akioota International Music festival. The song was a collaboration between Thaïs for melody, lyrics by the children of Hiroshima, lyrics made into poetry by poet Arthur Binard, piano by Scott Nagatani. The song has become the official song to commemorate the annual war memorial for the Akioota International Music Festival.

Philanthropy

In 2011, Thaïs launched an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the children at Atlanta Georgia's Children's Rite Hospital

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) sometimes simply referred to as ''Children's'', is a not-for-profit children's healthcare system, located in the Atlanta area dedicated to caring for infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–2 ...

(CHOA). She raised $1736 and also created a music video with her song ''Hope Is My Friend'' to spread the news of love and hope so that hospitalized children would have Christmas presents.

Art and music non-profit collaborations

Music

To help disadvantaged youth find their own voices, Thaïs worked with the non-profit program ''Youth Speak Collective'' students in the San Fernando Valley to cultivate their songwriting skills for Rockband 101. World renowned drummer percussionist Billy Hawn joined in to help teach, inspire, and arrange music for the students.

Art

To help raise awareness of the plight of Asian elephants, Thaïs collaborated with a non-profit organization ''Elemotion'', to paint a life-size baby Asian elephant with the students from

International School of the Sacred Heart International School of the Sacred Heart (ISSH) is a Kindergarten (co-ed) – Grades 1–12 (all girls) school in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1908. As part of the Network of Sacred Heart Schools it is affiliated with schools and institution ...

Television

In 2016, Thaïs was one of the two finalists on

Skin Wars ''Skin Wars'' is a body painting reality competition hosted by Rebecca Romijn that premiered on the American pay-television channel Game Show Network on August 6, 2014. Contestants on the series perform challenges containing body painting each ep ...

: Fresh Paint episode 2, hosted by

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ...

. A spin-off of the popular TV series

specifically for artists who have never body painted before.

Television

Children's television personality

Children's television

Discography

Songs for films

Albums

;Independently released: ;Studio released:

Singles

;Singles released independently: * ''Thanks Santa'' (1995) * ''The Divine'' (2004) * ''When Elephants Cry'' (2010) * ''Hope Is My Friend'' (2011) * ''All We Gotta Give'' (2011) * ''The Great Serengeti'' (2011) * ''Tohorā He Waiata'' (The Whale Song) (2012) * ''Hearts Don't Lie'' (2013) * ''Let the Wind Blow'' (2014) * ''Yamayuri no Kimochi'' (2015) * ''I Will Sing For You'' (2020) * ''The Yamayuri Song'' (2020) * ''Just One More Time'' (2020) ;Released

: * ''Let's Play with Alphabets'' (2009) * Sounds of Animals (2009) * ''Kaze no Youni'' (1993)

Music videos

* ''Just One More Time (2020)'' * ''I Will Sing For You'' (2020) * ''Yamayuri No Kimochi'' (2016) * ''Let the Wind Blow'' (2015) * ''I Needed You'' ((ft.Connor Sullivan)) (2014) * ''Tusks & Horns'' (2014) * ''Hearts Don't Lie'' ((ft. Ambient Chameleon)) (2013) * ''Hope is My Friend'' (2012) * ''The Great Serengeti'' (2011) * ''All We Gotta Give'' (2011) * ''All Alone at Christmas'' (2011) * ''When Elephants Cry'' (2007)

Awards

Art

Music

Video interviews and appearances

* "We all Japan No. 10 – Mayuka Thaïs " 2011 * "Mayuka Thaïs Summer Songwriting Workshop for Youth Speak Collective 2011 with Billy Hawn " 2011 * "GLOBAL MARCH FOR ELEPHANTS & RHINOS SF – Musical Medicine with Soleil Dakota " 2014

References

External links

Official Mayuka Thais Site

Mayuka Thaïs IMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thais, Mayuka 1979 births Living people American folk guitarists American women singer-songwriters Songwriters from San Francisco Singers from San Francisco Musicians from Los Angeles Otis College of Art and Design alumni Guitarists from San Francisco 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century American guitarists American musicians of Japanese descent American women musicians of Japanese descent American television hosts American children's musicians 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers American women television presenters 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers Singer-songwriters from California