Anna Akana

Anna Kay Napualani Akana[1] (born August 18, 1989) is an American YouTuber, actress, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, and author.

Anna Akana
Akana at VidCon Amsterdam in March 2018
Born
Anna Kay Napualani Akana

(1989-08-18) August 18, 1989
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Actress
  • filmmaker
  • producer
  • comedian
  • singer
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010–present
GenreMusic, mental health, comedy
Subscribers2.7 million
Total views331.3 million
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers

Updated: June 27, 2020
Websiteannaakana.com

Early life, family and education

Akana's father was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, including during her childhood.[2] Her family moved every few years to a new state or country.[3] In a 2020 interview, she said that she loved Sailor Moon, Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2, expressing her surprise that her dad would make them watch Tenchi Muyo! with him because of its "perverted" nature.[4] She further 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 Valentine's Day 2007, Akana's 13-year-old sister, Kristina, died by suicide.[5] Several months after her sister's death, Akana watched Margaret Cho perform on a Comedy Central special and laughed for the first time since the suicide. She began to see laughter as a means of trying to move on with her life and decided to seriously pursue comedy.[6] 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.[7] In that same year, she released a book Surviving Suicide which contains her journal entries from the two years after her sister's death.[8]

In October 2018, she came out as bisexual.[9]

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.[6] She later resumed performing stand-up onstage.

YouTube

In 2014, Akana formed a comedy music duo, Cat Benatar, with fellow comedian and writer Megan Rosati.[10] (The duo's name is wordplay for the pop singer Pat Benatar.)

Akana creates both comedy and documentary YouTube videos.[11] In 2014, Akana was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #72.[12] In that same year, Akana decided to focus more on her skills as a director and attempted to make one short film a month.[13] While she did not reach her goal of twelve short films, she did make six short films which were received well by her YouTube audience. Akana starred in all of her short films and has starred in various other short films, and she has since continued to create short films.[14]

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.[15][16][17] 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.[18][19][20][21][22]

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. She is also the host of the web series Crash Course Business: Entrepreneurship beginning in August 2019.[23]

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 called Laughing Matters.[24]

Film and television

In 2011, Akana appeared in the TV series Awkward. In that same year, she also appeared as an extra in Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" music video.[25]

In 2015, she appeared in the films Ant-Man and Kids vs Monsters.

Akana starred in Snapper Hero, a scripted video series distributed via Snapchat.[26] The series was sponsored by AT&T.[26]

In 2016, Akana appeared alongside Sally Field in the indie comedy film Hello, My Name Is Doris, written by Michael Showalter.[27] That same year, she also appeared in a short Star Wars fan film, Hoshino[28] as well as the comedy film Dirty 30.

She has a recurring role in the Comedy Central show Corporate.[29]

She also has supporting roles as Gloria Sato in the Disney Channel 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 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.[30]

Other ventures

In 2015, Akana released a clothing line, Ghost & Stars, which features several cat-themed designs as well as formal dresses, leggings, and a variety of T-shirts.[31]

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.[32]

In 2019, Akana transitioned from comedy into music, and upon so, released her debut single, "Intervention". Its music video was directed by Auden Bui.[33][34] 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.[35]

Critical reception

In reviewing her video, "Why Guys Like Asian Girls" (which references "Yellow Fever", a term for an Asian fetish)[36] 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."[37]

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."[38]

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."[27]

Filmography

Feature films

Year Title Role Notes
2013 Inappropriate Comedy Student driver
2014 Here She Is Miss Hawaii Also writer
2015 Ant-Man Writer
Kids vs Monsters Daisy
2016 Hello, My Name Is Doris Blogger
Dirty 30 Ashley Driscoll
2017 You Get Me Lydia
2018 Next Gen Ani Voice role
2019 Go Back to China Sasha Li
2019 Let It Snow Kerry
2020 Hooking Up Elizabeth
2021 So Much TBA Television film, pre-production

Television

Year Title Episode(s) Role Notes
2011 Awkward "Knocker Nightmare" Asian girl
2012 Shake It Up "Made in Japan" Tomoka
The Beauty Inside 5 episodes Alex #29
2013–2014 The Fosters 2 episodes Lily
2016 Adam Ruins Everything "Adam Ruins Shopping Malls" Female Shopper
2017 Stitchers 7 episodes Amanda Weston Recurring Role
2018–2020 Corporate Paige Recurring Role
2018–present Big City Greens 18 episodes Gloria Sato, Ms. Cho Voice role; recurring
2019–present Amphibia 5 episodes Sasha Waybright Voice role; recurring
2020 Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins 6 Episodes Daisy Main role
Into the Dark "My Valentine" Julie guest star
A Million Little Things 4 Episodes Dakota Recurring Role
NCIS: Los Angeles "Murder of Crows" Rhea Moretti Guest Star
2021 Jupiter's Legacy 4 Episodes Raikou Main role

Web series

Year Title Episode(s) Role Notes
2011 Breaking Los Angeles 9 episodes Herself Also producer
10 Second Traumas 8 episodes Various Also a writer, executive producer and director
2012 Pointy Teeth "Pilot" Anna
2013 Riley Rewind 5 episodes Riley Brown Also writer and producer
Runaway Thoughts Podcast 85 episodes[39] Herself Ran until May 14, 2014.[40] Co-host, also writer and producer,[41] partially lost media
2015 52 Ways to Break Up "#24 and #25- Compare Notes" Anna
Command Center Commander Also writer and director
Broken People 2 episodes Pinches
Last Moments of Relationships "CRAZY DATING STORIES" Fay
Stunted Nora
Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures Episode: "Art Attack" The White Spirit
Wrestling Isn't Wrestling Batista Short Film
Adult Wednesday 2 episodes - Executive producer
Rough Day Detective Mah-jong Also executive producer
MisSpelled "#HotlineWing" Stella
#Cybriety "Neighbor Ellen" Ellen
2016 Hipsters 3 episodes Jane Also director
Tiny Feminists "Linda" Ms. Applebaum
This Isn't Working 5 episodes Nicole
Transformers: Combiner Wars 4 episodes Victorion Voice role
Single by 30 6 episodes Grace
12 Deadly Days "Coffee Cups" Judalina
Go-Go Boy Interrupted 10 episodes - Co-producer
Miss 2059 24 episodes Victoria Young Also creator, executive producer and director
2017 Drive Share "Garbage Mommy" Driver
Search Bar 12 episodes Various Also creator, executive producer and director
2018 Youth & Consequences 8 episodes Farrah Also creator and executive producer

Discography

Studio albums

Title Details
Casualty
  • Released: October 4, 2019
  • Format: Digital download, Streaming
  • Label: JENGA Productions

Extended plays

Title Details
No Longer Yours
  • Released: February 19, 2021
  • Format: Digital Download, Streaming
  • Label: TBA

Singles

Title Year Album
"Intervention" 2019 Casualty
"Alone Together"
"Pretty Girls Don't Cry"
"Not My Proudest Moment"
"Disappointment"
"Let Me Go"
"Need You Now"
(from "A Million Little Things: Season 2")
2020 N/A
"Everything's Gotta Change"
(from "A Million Little Things: Season 2")
N/A
"Swim" No Longer Yours
"Pink"
"Run" 2021

Promotional singles

Title Year Album
"Screw You" 2012 Non-album single
"Mad Love"
"Against The Darkness"
"Lost Dreams"
(featuring Jesse Cale)
2013

Music videos

Title Year Director
"Screw You" 2012 Will Akana[42]
"Intervention 2019 Auden Bui[43]
"Alone Together" Maggie Levin[44]
"Pretty Girls Don't Cry" Maggie Levin[45]
"Not My Proudest Moment" Jackson Adams[46]
"Disappointment" Hazel Hayes[47]
"Let Me Go" Auden Bui[48]
"Casualty" [49]
"Bad News" [50]
"Spoken For" Auden Bui[51]
"Selfish" 2020 [52]
"Quicksand" Kantu Lentz[53]
"Pick A Fight" [54]
"Swim" Anna Akana & Auden Bui[55]
"Pink" [56]
"Run" 2021 Auden Bui[57]

Guest appearances

Year Artist(s) Title Role
2011 Katy Perry "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" Extra

Awards

Year Association Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2014 San Diego Asian Film Festival Digital Pioneer Won [58]
2015 Streamy Awards Best Actress SnapperHero Nominated [59]
2018 Streamy Awards Acting in a Drama Youth & Consequences Won [60]
2019 46th Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Digital Drama Series Youth & Consequences Nominated [61]

References

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  4. Akana, Anna (September 25, 2020). "Magical Girl Friendship Squad's Anna Akana on What Drew Her to the Show" (Online). Interviewed by Sam Stone. Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
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