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Anna Akana
Anna Kay Napualani Akana (born August 18, 1989) is an American YouTuber, comedian, actress, filmmaker, and musician. She has appeared in TV series, web series, films, and music videos that include Ray William Johnson's Breaking Los Angeles (2011), 10 Second Traumas (2011), Awkward (2011), Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" (2011), Ant-Man (2015), Hello, My Name Is Doris (2016), Dirty 30 (2016), Big City Greens (2018–present), Amphibia (2019–2022), Magical Girl Friendship Squad (2020), and Blade of the 47 Ronin (2022).
In 2015, she launched a clothing line called Ghost & Stars. She is the author of So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister (2017), in which she describes her struggles and experiences from her sister's suicide to her celebrity status.
Akana's father was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, including during her childhood.[better source needed] Her father moved every few years to a new state or country. In a 2020 interview, she said that she loved Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, and Ranma ½, expressing her surprise that her father would let her watch Tenchi Muyo! with him despite its "perverted" nature. Her father stated that she loved shows like The Powerpuff Girls, animation in general, and anime, the latter especially because she spent "four years growing up in Japan".
On February 14, 2007, Akana's younger sister, Kristina, died by suicide at age 13. Several months after, Akana watched Margaret Cho perform on a Comedy Central special and laughed for the first time since her sister's death, seeing it as a means of trying to move on with her life, and she decided to seriously pursue comedy after. Akana has been vocal about her sister's suicide and is a strong advocate for suicide prevention. In 2013, Akana uploaded a YouTube video, "please don't kill yourself", in which she explains how it felt for her to have a family member die by suicide.[better source needed] In that same year, she released a book, Surviving Suicide, which contains her journal entries from the two years after her sister's death.[citation needed]
Akana first started performing comedy at age 19 but switched to YouTube video performances in 2011 after experiencing panic attacks and anxiety before going on stage.
Akana creates both comedy and documentary YouTube videos. In 2014, Akana was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #72. In that same year, Akana attempted to make one short film a month.[better source needed] She created and starred in six short films. Akana has starred in various other short films, and she has since continued to create short films.[better source needed] In 2014, Akana formed a comedy music duo, Cat Benatar, with fellow comedian and writer Megan Rosati.[better source needed] (The duo's name is wordplay for the pop singer Pat Benatar.)
In reviewing her video, "Why Guys Like Asian Girls" (which references "Yellow Fever", a term for an Asian fetish),[better source needed] Cate Matthews of The Huffington Post wrote: "A step-by-step takedown of 'yellow fever' or the desire to date Asian women often accompanied by bizarre, offensive attempts to do so, could start the healing. Luckily for us, YouTuber Anna Akana was more than up to the video-making task." In reviewing her video, "How to Deal with a Breakup", MTV wrote: "In this sketch, comedian Anna Akana envisions the flurry of activity inside the cranial command center of a newly single dumpee."
One of her short films, Miss Earth, was partially financed by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's production company, New Form Digital. It was part of the 2014 Incubator, a series to showcase and produce original stories by YouTube Creators and filmmakers. Miss Earth was later adapted into a web series, Miss 2059, and released on Verizon's go90 app in June 2016, with a second season released in late 2017.
Anna Akana
Anna Kay Napualani Akana (born August 18, 1989) is an American YouTuber, comedian, actress, filmmaker, and musician. She has appeared in TV series, web series, films, and music videos that include Ray William Johnson's Breaking Los Angeles (2011), 10 Second Traumas (2011), Awkward (2011), Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" (2011), Ant-Man (2015), Hello, My Name Is Doris (2016), Dirty 30 (2016), Big City Greens (2018–present), Amphibia (2019–2022), Magical Girl Friendship Squad (2020), and Blade of the 47 Ronin (2022).
In 2015, she launched a clothing line called Ghost & Stars. She is the author of So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister (2017), in which she describes her struggles and experiences from her sister's suicide to her celebrity status.
Akana's father was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, including during her childhood.[better source needed] Her father moved every few years to a new state or country. In a 2020 interview, she said that she loved Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, and Ranma ½, expressing her surprise that her father would let her watch Tenchi Muyo! with him despite its "perverted" nature. Her father stated that she loved shows like The Powerpuff Girls, animation in general, and anime, the latter especially because she spent "four years growing up in Japan".
On February 14, 2007, Akana's younger sister, Kristina, died by suicide at age 13. Several months after, Akana watched Margaret Cho perform on a Comedy Central special and laughed for the first time since her sister's death, seeing it as a means of trying to move on with her life, and she decided to seriously pursue comedy after. Akana has been vocal about her sister's suicide and is a strong advocate for suicide prevention. In 2013, Akana uploaded a YouTube video, "please don't kill yourself", in which she explains how it felt for her to have a family member die by suicide.[better source needed] In that same year, she released a book, Surviving Suicide, which contains her journal entries from the two years after her sister's death.[citation needed]
Akana first started performing comedy at age 19 but switched to YouTube video performances in 2011 after experiencing panic attacks and anxiety before going on stage.
Akana creates both comedy and documentary YouTube videos. In 2014, Akana was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #72. In that same year, Akana attempted to make one short film a month.[better source needed] She created and starred in six short films. Akana has starred in various other short films, and she has since continued to create short films.[better source needed] In 2014, Akana formed a comedy music duo, Cat Benatar, with fellow comedian and writer Megan Rosati.[better source needed] (The duo's name is wordplay for the pop singer Pat Benatar.)
In reviewing her video, "Why Guys Like Asian Girls" (which references "Yellow Fever", a term for an Asian fetish),[better source needed] Cate Matthews of The Huffington Post wrote: "A step-by-step takedown of 'yellow fever' or the desire to date Asian women often accompanied by bizarre, offensive attempts to do so, could start the healing. Luckily for us, YouTuber Anna Akana was more than up to the video-making task." In reviewing her video, "How to Deal with a Breakup", MTV wrote: "In this sketch, comedian Anna Akana envisions the flurry of activity inside the cranial command center of a newly single dumpee."
One of her short films, Miss Earth, was partially financed by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's production company, New Form Digital. It was part of the 2014 Incubator, a series to showcase and produce original stories by YouTube Creators and filmmakers. Miss Earth was later adapted into a web series, Miss 2059, and released on Verizon's go90 app in June 2016, with a second season released in late 2017.
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