Karen is a Japanese-American film, TV and voice actress, who is possibly best known for her appearances in the superhero movie “Suicide Squad” and the TV series, “The Boys.”
Age, Early Life, and Education Background
Karen Fukuhara hails from Los Angeles, California, and was born under the Aquarius zodiac sign on 10 February 1991, which makes her 31 years old as of 2023. She was raised in a traditional Japanese family alongside her younger brother, by Katsumi Fukuhara, and the piano teacher Hidemi Fukuhara. Fukuhara’s first language is Japanese, which she was taught for 11 years when she was a child.
Fukuhara attended Venice High School in Los Angeles, then enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. While in college, Karen worked as a correspondent for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (also known as NHK). The “Suicide Squad” starlet was also a member of the a cappella band UCLA Medleys, whose other notable alumni included the American actress Kelly Marie Tran. Karen graduated with a BA in Sociology and a Theatre minor in 2014.
Interesting Facts and Hobbies
Karen goes by the nickname ‘Kazzy.’
She trained and earned a brown belt in the Japanese karate, Kyokushin, which means ‘the ultimate truth,’ when she was in middle school.
She is a culinary enthusiast who is a big fan of Japanese cuisine. According to her, ‘Some people say they eat to live, I live to eat.’
She is also a fitness fanatic who is keen on weight training, swimming and dancing. She also practices yoga and meditation.
Karen Fukuhara playing the guitar and loving her plants during her interview with Brydie!
You can read the full interview where she talks about mental health, hobbies, #TheBoysTV and #SheraandthePrincessesofPower here: https://t.co/o0DAk14caI pic.twitter.com/A3xOB6219m
— best of karen fukuhara (@badpostskaren) September 9, 2020
Career Beginnings
Before she officially began her acting career, Fukuhara served as a translator for a Japanese supermodel in New York Fashion Week. She also worked as a sub-title editor, and waitress at a sushi restaurant. Karen also served as a host of the Disney Channel entertainment news program, “Movie Surfers,” in which teenage reporters go behind the scenes of the latest and upcoming Disney movies.
Rise to Stardom and Continued Success
In 2016, Karen made her movie debut as Katana in the acclaimed DC Comics superhero movie “Suicide Squad,” which starred Margot Bobbie, Will Smith, and Jared Leto, for which her martial arts skills came in handy during the shooting of the movie. To hone her skills, she undertook a specialized training regime, which comprised sword training and gym workouts. She had the opportunity of training under the guidance of the well-respected trainer, Richard Mesquita, and did stunts and action sequences with the likes of Guy Norris and Richard Norton. The David Ayer-directed film was a critical and commercial success, as it grossed over $740 million worldwide.
Fukuhara began voicing Alexis and Sewer Queen in the Cartoon Network animated TV series “Craig of the Creek” in 2018. In the same year, she joined the cast of the streaming TV series “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” lending her voice to Glimmer in 48 episodes through 2020. Concurrently, in 2019 she landed one of the most important roles in her career, as Kimiko Miyashiro in the Amazon Prime Video series “The Boys”, appearing alongside Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty and Anthony Starr in the show, which has so far aired for three seasons as of early 2023. 2019 also saw her cast alongside Ross Partridge, Christine Woods and Miyavi in the crime thriller “Stray.”
In 2020, Karen was selected to voice Kipo Oak in Radford Sechrist’s animated TV series “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts”, and in the same year, she voiced Ikioi in the film “Bobbleheads: The Movie.” 2021 saw Fukuhara voice Reiko in the animated adult series “Archer,” which premiered on FX on 17 September 2009. In 2022, Fukuhara shared the screen with Brad Pitt in the action-comedy movie “Bullet Train”, portraying Kayda Izumi Concession Girl in the hit David Leitch-directed film which also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bad Bunny and Joey King, which had a box office collection of almost $240 million. Then, most recently, Fukuhara voiced Dani Nakamura in the 2022 survival video game “The Callisto Protocol.”
Karen was nominated for two consecutive IGN Summer Movie Awards together with the cast of “The Boys” in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, she bagged an IMDb STARmeter Award for Fan Favorite Stars. Moreover, she was nominated for a joint MTV Movie + TV Award for Best Fight together with “The Boys” cast members, Erin Moriarty, Aya Cash and Dominique McElligott.
Social Media Presence
Karen is followed by around two million fans on Instagram (@karenfukuhara). She joined Twitter in October 2013, and has gained over 200,000 followers as of 2023 – her handle is @KarenFukuhara.
Fukuhara launched her self-titled YouTube channel on 10 September 2020. She is fond of posting food review videos and her most-viewed are “Karen’s Kitchen | Spaghetti Carbonara (Japanese Style)” and “Karen’s Kitchen | Cucumber Margaritas with Erin Moriarty.” Karen has almost 280,000 subscribers and her videos have attracted over 7.4 million views as of May 2023.
Personal Life
It’s reported that Fukuhara is in a romantic relationship with the American model and photographic model, Keith Tio, the founder of the winter clothing brand, November.lab. The duo first met at a party in 2014, exchanged numbers, and began dating shortly afterwards. They are seemingly much in love and like posting their photos together on their Instagram accounts – Fukuhara shared their picture while on a snowy escapade in Mammoth Lakes in California on Valentine’s Day, and captioned it with a heart-warming message thanking Tio for being in her life. Karen is unmarried without any children as of 2023.
Fukuhara is good friends with her co-star, Tomer Capone, who plays her boyfriend (Frenchie) in “The Boys.” Previously, there were rumors that the two were dating in real life, but they’ve clarified that they’re just friends.
Height, Weight, and Physical Appearance
Fukuhara is of Asian ethnicity and has a set of black eyes and long black hair. She weighs approximately 110lbs (50kgs) and stands 5ft 2ins (1.57m) tall.
Net Worth
Karen has earned a good sum from her acting career. She also uses her massively followed social media accounts to endorse brands, which has also contributed to her net worth. She is worth approximately $800,000, as of 2023.
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