Karen Fukuhara
Karen Fukuhara is an actor, born 1992.
Karen Fukuhara's first major role gave her a sword, a mask and very little screen time to establish a person behind either: Tatsu Yamashiro, Katana, in the 2016 film Suicide Squad. She was born in Los Angeles in 1992.
The role that actually shows what she can do is Kimiko Miyashiro on The Boys, which she has played since 2019. Kimiko does not speak, so an entire lead character has to be built out of face, posture and violence on a show where everyone else talks constantly and cruelly. It is a genuinely difficult brief, and Fukuhara has made it the most sympathetic performance in a series that is not interested in sympathy. The fight work is a large part of the role, and she carries it.
Alongside that, she has built a real voice career in animation: Glimmer in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, the title role in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Alexis across Craig of the Creek and its film, Sam Nishimura in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, and Haru in Pokemon Concierge, which is not catalogued here. The live-action list stays short: a scene in Bullet Train, the independent film Stray, Minx in Stone Cold Fox. Twelve catalogued credits is not many, but two of them are the kind that follow an actor around.
Movies (6)
TV (6)
Where to start with Karen Fukuhara
Start with The Boys, which is the reason most people are on this page. Give it a full season, because Kimiko's storyline builds slowly and the early episodes deliberately keep her at the edge of the frame before the show works out what it has.
Then Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, which is the best-written animated series she has led and a much warmer piece of work than anything else on her list. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is the bigger show and Glimmer is the harder character to like, deliberately so. Suicide Squad is where most people first saw her and is chiefly of historical interest. Bullet Train gives her one very good scene, and Craig of the Creek is the quiet children's series that is far better than it needs to be.