Anna Kay Napualani Akana (born August 18, 1989) is an American actress, comedian, filmmaker, musician, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. 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 Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

'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), 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.

Early and personal life

Akana's father was an officer in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

, including during her childhood. Her father moved every few years to a new state or country. In a 2020 interview, she said that she loved ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

'', '' Inuyasha'', and '' Ranma ½'', expressing her surprise that her dad would make them 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 aged 13. The siblings got into an argument over their parents forbidding Kristina from attending a friend's sleepover and only being allowed to attend their party. Kristina disputed her popularity among her friends if she could not attend the sleepover, to which Anna responded, "You’re being stupid, you can go to the party." Kristina then got mad and flung a bunch of stuff across Anna's room before being kicked out. In the aftermath, Kristina hung herself in her bedroom closet. Several months after, Akana watched

Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, actress and musician. In her Stand-up comedy, stand-up routines she critiques social and political problems, especially about race and sexuality. She starred in the Ame ...

perform on a

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

special and laughed for the first time since her sister's death. She began to see laughter as a means of trying to move on with her life and decided to seriously pursue comedy. Akana has been vocal about her sister's suicide and is a strong advocate for

suicide prevention Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public healt ...

. 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. In that same year, she released a book ''Surviving Suicide'' which contains her journal entries from the two years after her sister's death. In October 2018, she came out as

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. In 2019, she stated that she had undergone an abortion when she was twenty and felt it was one of the best decisions she had ever made. She later presented her story as a movie for YouTube titled "Take Your Birth Control". Akana is of Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Spanish, French, Irish, German, and English descent.

Career

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.

YouTube

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. 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. In 2014, Akana formed a comedy music duo, Cat Benatar, with fellow comedian and writer Megan Rosati. (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), Cate Matthews of ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'' 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 MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

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 Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American filmmaker and actor. Howard started his career as a child actor before transitioning to directing films. Over his six-decade career, Howard has received List of awards and nominations r ...

'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. Akana executive produced and starred as the lead role in the original comedy-drama web television series '' Youth & Consequences'', created by Jason Ubaldi and released in March 2018 on

YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...

. She is also the host of the web series Crash Course Business: Entrepreneurship beginning in August 2019. On October 10, 2019, she was featured in a 30-minute YouTube documentary created by SoulPancake in collaboration with Funny or Die wherein a variety of comedians discuss

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

called ''Laughing Matters.'' '' Deadline'' referred to Akana as "a prolific online creator whose channel boasts 60 million views and 900,000 subscribers, and last year wrote and starred in her own narrative feature ''Riley Rewind'', scoring a none-too-shabby 20M views online."

Film and television

In 2011, Akana appeared in the TV series ''Awkward''. In that same year, she also appeared as an extra in

's " Last Friday Night" music video. Akana starred in ''Snapper Hero'', a scripted video series distributed via Snapchat. The series was sponsored by

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

. In 2016, Akana appeared alongside Sally Field in the indie comedy film '' Hello, My Name Is Doris'', written by Michael Showalter. That same year, she also appeared in a short ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' fan film, ''Hoshino'' as well as the comedy film '' Dirty 30''. She has a recurring role in the

show ''

Corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

''. She also has supporting roles as Gloria Sato in the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

show '' Big City Greens'' and Sasha Waybright in '' Amphibia''. In 2019, she announced on Ryan Higa's ''Off the Pill'' podcast to be part of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

original '' Jupiter's Legacy''. Akana also hosts the podcast ''Explain Things to Me'' with fellow comedian Brad Gage where the two interview experts in various fields about their work. In 2021, Akana was announced as starring alongside

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991) Additional on October 9, 2016 is an American actress, singer and producer. Known for her performances spanning multiple genres of film and television, her work in the horror film, horror and thriller ...

in the romantic comedy '' About Fate''.

Other ventures

In 2015, Akana released a clothing line, Ghost & Stars, which features several cat-themed designs as well as formal dresses,

leggings Leggings are several types of leg attire that have varied through the years. Modern usage from the 1960s onwards has come to refer to elastic close-fitting High-rise (fashion), high-rise garments worn over the legs typically by women, such as leg ...

, and a variety of T-shirts. In 2017, Akana's book ''So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister'' was published. The book describes Akana's struggles and experiences growing up and offers advice to her late sister. In 2019, Akana transitioned from comedy into music, and released her debut single, "Intervention". Its music video was directed by Auden Bui. She has since released two more music videos, one for "Pretty Girls Don't Cry" in July 2019 and "Not My Proudest Moment" in August. She continued to release music videos for songs named "Alone Together", "Disappointment", and "Let Me Go". Her debut album, ''Casualty'', came out in October 2019. Her follow up project came out early 2021 called ''No Longer Yours''. In 2024, Akana rolled out her standup comedy tour ''It Gets Darker'' with an entire hour dedicated to telling stories about her late sister's suicide and the traumatic aftermath, her history with violent stalkers causing her to quit live appearances, and growing up as a Hawaiian-native Asian military brat.

Filmography

Feature films

Television

Web series

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Promotional singles

Other appearances

Music videos

Guest appearances

Awards

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akana, Anna 1989 births Filmmakers from California American comedy YouTubers Bisexual comedians LGBTQ YouTubers Bisexual women musicians Living people Place of birth missing (living people) YouTube filmmakers American YouTube vloggers American women video bloggers American video bloggers YouTube channels launched in 2011 American people of Native Hawaiian descent American actresses of Filipino descent American musicians of Filipino descent American actresses of Japanese descent American women musicians of Japanese descent American music YouTubers Actors from Monterey County, California American comedians of Asian descent 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American LGBTQ people of Asian descent American LGBTQ singers American LGBTQ comedians American bisexual musicians American bisexual actresses 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers LGBTQ people from California YouTubers from California American women comedians Comedians from California Actresses from California American people of Spanish descent American people of Irish descent American people of French descent American people of German descent American people of English descent LGBTQ women singers