Nichole Sakura (formerly credited as Nichole Bloom) is a Japanese-American actress best known for her roles as Cheyenne Thompson in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' Superstore'' (2015–2021), Amanda in '' Shameless'' (2014-2016), and as Emily Davis in the horror video game ''

Until Dawn ''Until Dawn'' is a 2015 interactive drama survival horror game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players assume control of eight young adults who have to survive on Blackwood Mountain when their ...

'' developed by

Supermassive Games Supermassive Games Limited is a British video game developer based in Guildford, Surrey. The studio is best known for developing horror games such as ''Until Dawn'' for Sony Interactive Entertainment, ''The Dark Pictures Anthology'' for Bandai ...

Early life

Sakura was born to a Japanese mother and an American father with Irish ancestry. She was raised in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and usually spent her summers as a child visiting relatives in Japan. She went to Santa Susana High School in

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. Simi Valley borders Th ...

and later attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, from which she graduated after three years as a Theater major. After college Sakura briefly attended classes at The Groundlings Theatre but was cut from the program, which she considered "devastating."

Career

She had the recurring role of

Amanda Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, "she who must (or is fit to) be loved". Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much by ev ...

on '' Shameless'' from 2014 to 2016. In 2015, Sakura starred in the music video for one of Phantoms’ two singles, “Broken Halo,” from their EP of the same name. Later that year, she was added to the main cast of the

sitcom '' Superstore'' as Cheyenne, a 17-year-old store employee who is pregnant at the start of the series. The series followed a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box chain store in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. She had voice roles in numerous animated film and television series, including ''

Suzume is a 2022 Japanese animated coming-of-age fantasy adventure film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The film follows 17-year-old high school girl Suzume Iwato and young stranger Souta Munakata, who team up to prevent a series of disaster ...

'', '' OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes'', '' Kiff'', and ''

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

''. In 2023, she had a recurring role as a ghost named Jessica on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

' sitcom ''

Ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

''. In November that year, Sakura starred alongside troupe Please Don’t Destroy in the comedy film '' Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain'', directed by Paul Briganti and written by the former.

Personal life

Her

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

was originally Nichole Bloom (the last name derived from her Japanese name Sakura, for

cherry blossom The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

); she changed it to Nichole Sakura in August 2020, announcing through

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

that she had changed her name for her acting credits to honor her mother and her Japanese heritage. She stated that she had taken her original stage name out of fear in being

typecast In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...

into stereotypical Asian roles.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Music videos

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakura, Nichole Living people Actresses from San Francisco American actresses of Japanese descent American film actresses American people of Irish descent American video game actresses American voice actresses Female models from California USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni 1989 births