# Anna Akana

Anna Kay Napualani Akana (born August 18, 1989) is an American actress, comedian, filmmaker, musician, and YouTuber. She has appeared in TV series, films, and music videos that include 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), 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, 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, 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. Several months after, Akana watched Margaret Cho perform on a Comedy Central 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. 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.
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. She later resumed performing stand-up onstage. During this time she went under the stage name "Anna Math" (a wordplay on the stereotype of Asians being smart, specifically good at math) and performed at various venues across California. She first struck online recognition with a semi-popular internet video on Funny or Die in 2010 of her mother discovering she masturbates as a teenager after finding condoms in the trashcan revealed to have been used to keep her vibrator clean. Around the same time, she made her acting debut in a The Sims 3 game trailer titled Confessions and as an uncredited background extra in 90210.

### YouTube

Akana became a public figure after meeting YouTube celebrity Ray William Johnson at a CBS Annual Diversity Showcase event in January 2012. Prior, upon moving to Los Angeles, Akana gained a larger online audience and debuted as a YouTube personality by launching a web mini-series in March 2011 titled 10 Second Traumas, created with her then-friend Deirdre Devlin. The series consisted of 10-second short sketches related to the women's struggles in LA, usually pertaining to their sex lives. 10 Second Traumas was also done in affiliation with FMyLife and Funny or Die. It gained mild traction after guest starring Katy Perry's brother David Hudson, but did not blow up until Ray William Johnson liked the videos in his public channel feed and in turn featured Akana and Devlin as "Video Hoes" in Ray's own web series Breaking NYC in July 2011, then starring in the 10 Second Traumas sketches himself. During this time Akana also posted the sketches as well as her standup hours on a predecessor channel called 'bicuriousears' (made in 2008).
With the encouragement of Ray William Johnson to start her own channel after accumulating enough recognition from the 10 Second Traumas series and her cameo roles in Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" music video and MTV's Awkward, Akana created her current YouTube channel in August 2011 and garnered an algorithm for her collaborations with Johnson. Originally uploading sketches and vlogs from her phone, Akana began making comedic life advice videos featuring prop guns and use of cloning to convey cutaways related to her storytelling. She was a huge fan of Batman and adopted the sign-off catchphrase "Stay awesome Gotham". Akana also began a music career by releasing the singles "Screw You", "Stoner Anna Versus Regular Anna", and "Against the Darkness" in 2012.
Akana and Johnson began dating in 2012 but broke up in July 2014 after Akana felt a power dynamic in their relationship due to Johnson being richer and more successful.
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.)
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 decided to focus more on her skills as a director and attempted to make one short film a month. 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.
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.
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.
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.

### Film and television

Akana began acting in 2010 by starring in uncredited background roles in commercials and the TV series 90210.
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.
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. The series was sponsored by AT&T.
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 fan film, Hoshino as well as the comedy film Dirty 30.
She has a recurring role in the Comedy Central show Corporate.
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.
In 2021, Akana was announced as starring alongside Emma Roberts 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, 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.

## Critical reception

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 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."
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."

## Filmography
### Feature films

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Inappropriate Comedy | Student driver | |
| 2014 | Here She Is | Miss Hawaii | Also writer |
| 2015 | Ant-Man | Writer in Luis' story | |
| 2015 | Kids vs Monsters | Daisy | |
| 2016 | Hello, My Name Is Doris | Blogger | |
| 2016 | Dirty 30 | Ashley Driscoll | |
| 2017 | You Get Me | Lydia | |
| 2018 | Next Gen | Ani | Voice |
| 2019 | Go Back to China | Sasha Li | |
| 2019 | Let It Snow | Kerry | |
| 2020 | Hooking Up | Elizabeth Carthright | |
| 2021 | So Much | TBA | Television film; pre-production |
| 2022 | Blade of the 47 Ronin | Luna | Netflix original film |
| 2024 | Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation | Gloria Sato, additional voices | Voice |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2011 | Awkward | Asian girl | Episode: "Knocker Nightmare" |
| 2012 | Shake It Up | Tomoka | Episode: "Made in Japan" |
| 2012 | The Beauty Inside | Alex #29 | 5 episodes |
| 2013–2014 | The Fosters | Lily | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Adam Ruins Everything | Female Shopper | Episode: "Adam Ruins Shopping Malls" |
| 2017 | Stitchers | Amanda Weston | Recurring role; 7 episodes |
| 2018–2020 | Corporate | Paige | Recurring role |
| 2018–present | Big City Greens | Gloria Sato | Voice, recurring role |
| 2019–2022 | Amphibia | Sasha Waybright | Voice, main role |
| 2020 | Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins | Daisy | Voice, main role |
| 2020 | Magical Girl Friendship Squad | Daisy | Voice, main role |
| 2020 | Into the Dark | Julie | Episode: "My Valentine" |
| 2020 | NCIS: Los Angeles | Rhea Moretti | Episode: "Murder of Crows" |
| 2020–2023 | A Million Little Things | Dakota | 5 episodes |
| 2021 | Jupiter's Legacy | Raikou | 2 episodes |
| 2021 | Home Economics | Lindsay | Episode: "Chorizo with Mojo Verde and Chicharrón, $45" |
| 2023 | Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur | Odessa Drake | Voice, episode: "Today, I Am a Woman" |

### Web series

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2011 | Breaking Los Angeles | Herself | 9 episodes; also producer |
| 2011 | 10 Second Traumas | Various | 8 episodes; also writer, executive producer and director |
| 2012 | Pointy Teeth | Anna | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2013 | Riley Rewind | Riley Brown | 5 episodes; also writer and producer |
| | Runaway Thoughts Podcast | 85 episodes, also writer and producer | |
| 2015 | 52 Ways to Break Up | Anna | Episode: "#24 and #25- Compare Notes" |
| 2015 | Command Center | Commander | Also writer and director |
| 2015 | Broken People | Pinches | 2 episodes |
| 2015 | Last Moments of Relationships | Fay | Episode: "CRAZY DATING STORIES" |
| 2015 | Stunted | Nora | |
| 2015 | Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures | The White Spirit | Episode: "Art Attack" |
| 2015 | Wrestling Isn't Wrestling | Batista | Short film |
| 2015 | Adult Wednesday Addams | Mackenzie Mae | Executive producer (2 episodes) |
| 2015 | Rough Day | Detective Mah-jong | Also executive producer |
| 2015 | MisSpelled | Stella | Episode: "#HotlineWing" |
| 2015 | #Cybriety | Ellen | Episode: "Neighbor Ellen" |
| 2016 | Hipsters | Jane | 3 episodes; also director |
| 2016 | Tiny Feminists | Ms. Applebaum | Episode: "Linda" |
| 2016 | This Isn't Working | Nicole | 5 episodes |
| 2016 | Transformers: Combiner Wars | Victorion | Voice, 4 episodes |
| 2016 | Single by 30 | Grace | 6 episodes |
| 2016 | 12 Deadly Days | Judalina | Episode: "Coffee Cups" |
| 2016 | Go-Go Boy Interrupted | - | Co-producer (10 episodes) |
| 2016 | Miss 2059 | Victoria Young | 24 episodes; also creator, executive producer and director |
| 2017 | Drive Share | Driver | Episode: "Garbage Mommy" |
| 2017 | Search Bar | Various | 12 episodes; also creator, executive producer and director |
| 2018 | Youth & Consequences | Farrah Cutney | 8 episodes; also creator and executive producer |
| 2019 | Crash Course: Entrepreneurship | Self (Host) | 18 episodes |

## 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: Hello Hello Love |

### Singles

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Intervention" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Alone Together" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Pretty Girls Don't Cry" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Not My Proudest Moment" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Disappointment" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Let Me Go" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Casualty" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Bad News | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Spoken For" | 2019 | Casualty |
| "Selfish | 2020 | Casualty |
| "Quicksand | 2020 | Casualty |
| "Pick a Fight" | 2020 | Casualty |
| "Swim" | 2020 | No Longer Yours |
| "Pink" | 2020 | No Longer Yours |
| "Run" | 2021 | No Longer Yours |
| "I Feel Nothing" | 2021 | No Longer Yours |
| "Wanted Woman" (featuring Macedo) | 2021 | TBA |
| "Sunshine" | 2022 | TBA |
| "Good Girl" (featuring Macedo) | 2022 | TBA |
| "Until Further Notice" | 2022 | TBA |
| "Your Girlfriend Is Not My Problem" | 2023 | TBA |
| "Like Beyoncé" | 2024 | TBA |

### As featuring artist

| Song | Year | Album |
| "Sunroof" (Macedo featuring Anna Akana) | 2022 | TBA |

### Promotional singles

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Screw You" | 2012 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "Mad Love" | 2012 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "Against the Darkness" | 2012 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "Lost Dreams" (featuring Jesse Cale) | 2013 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "Need You Now" (from "A Million Little Things: Season 2") | 2020 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "Everything's Gotta Change" (from "A Million Little Things: Season 2") | 2020 | Non-album promotional singles |
| "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (from "A Million Little Things: Season 3") | 2021 | Non-album promotional singles |

### Other appearances

| Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
| "Heartstomper" | 2021 | — | Amphibia: Battle of the Bands |
| "No Big Deal" | 2021 | Brenda Song, Haley Tju | Amphibia: Battle of the Bands |
| "Euthanasia" | 2022 | Daemon | Blade of the 47 Robin |

### Music videos

| Title | Year | Director |
| "Screw You" | 2012 | Will Akana |
| "Intervention" | 2019 | Auden Bui |
| "Alone Together" | 2019 | Maggie Levin |
| "Pretty Girls Don't Cry" | 2019 | Maggie Levin |
| "Not My Proudest Moment" | 2019 | Jackson Adams |
| "Disappointment" | 2019 | Hazel Hayes |
| "Let Me Go" | 2019 | Auden Bui |
| "Casualty" | 2019 | |
| "Bad News" | 2019 | |
| "Spoken For" | 2019 | Auden Bui |
| "Selfish" | 2020 | |
| "Quicksand" | 2020 | Kantu Lentz |
| "Pick a Fight" | 2020 | |
| "Swim" | 2020 | Anna Akana & Auden Bui |
| "Pink" | 2020 | |
| "Run" | 2021 | Auden Bui |
| "I Feel Nothing" | 2021 | Auden Bui |
| "Wanted Woman" | 2021 | Maggie Levin |
| "Sunshine" | 2022 | |

### 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 |
| 2014 | San Diego Asian Film Festival | Digital Pioneer | | Won |
| 2015 | Streamy Awards | Best Actress | SnapperHero | Nominated |
| 2018 | Streamy Awards | Acting in a Drama | Youth & Consequences | Won |
| 2019 | 46th Daytime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Digital Drama Series | Youth & Consequences | Nominated |