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Atsuko Okatsuka
American stand-up comedian (born 1988) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Atsuko Okatsuka (/ˈɑːtskoʊ oʊˈkɑːtskə/ AHT-skoh oh-KAHT-skə;[1] Japanese: 岡塚 敦子, romanized: Okatsuka Atsuko; Chinese: 岡塚 敦子; pinyin: Gāngzhǒng Dūnzǐ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kongthióng Tunchú; born 1988) is a Japanese-Taiwanese-American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer based in Los Angeles.[2][3] She was named one of Variety's "Top 10 Comics to Watch" in 2022 and is the second Asian American woman to have a standup special on HBO.[4][5] She started the viral #Dropchallenge with her grandmother.[6]
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Early life
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Okatsuka was born in 1988 in Taiwan to a Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother,[7] and spent her early childhood in Japan. Her parents, who had met on a Japanese dating show,[8] divorced when she was very young,[9] with her mother having developed schizophrenia after her birth. After the divorce, custody was given to Okatsuka's father, who lived in Chiba.[9] She also has two older half-siblings from her father's first marriage.[10] Her maternal grandfather was assassinated by the Kuomintang during the White Terror.[1]
At age eight,[11] Okatsuka was kidnapped[12] by her maternal grandmother and taken to her mother in the United States,[13] living undocumented[13] for seven years[14] in a room above Okatsuka's maternal uncles' garage.[8][10]
Okatsuka has revealed that she used humor and outlandishness to get her mother's attention growing up "because when she has the voices going in her head, she can't hear me. But if I can do something dramatic enough, she might hear me."[8] She has mentioned as a child watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lucille Ball, Margaret Cho and Japanese comedian Ken Shimura.[8][10]
Education
Okatsuka attended Venice High School,[15] where she was part of the cheerleading squad. After graduating from high school, Okatsuka studied psychology at UC Riverside,[16] before dropping out[16] and graduating from California Institute of the Arts.[17]
While attending community college in Valencia, Okatsuka found that her interest in comedy and performing was something that she wanted to pursue seriously.[10]
I was never really good at school, but I always performed in some aspect throughout my life… whether it's dancing, cheerleading, theatre. When I was in community college [in Valencia] I was like, I like making people laugh. How do I take that and make that into a thing I can start doing? At the time the only way I knew how to learn something was through the guidance of a class. I looked up stand-up comedy classes on Craigslist and found "Pretty Funny Women". It's an all women's stand-up class. At the time I signed up for the class, they were filming a documentary for it. I didn't have to start off just by going to open mics, which were pretty much dangerous if you were a woman. It still is now, but ten years ago, it was like walking into wolves. I still did it after the class was over, but I didn't have to start off that way, which I feel lucky.
— Atsuko Okatsuka, Atsuko Okatsuka Is the Joke Slinger America Needs
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Career
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Okatsuka began doing stand-up in small clubs around Los Angeles.[10]
In 2020, Okatsuka released her debut album with Comedy Dynamics, But I Control Me.[18] She hosted and executive produced Let's Go Atsuko, for the now defunct Quibi.[19] Paste said that her comedy style "has a childlike quality to it, with stage persona informed by a complex and challenging upbringing."[20]
Okatsuka notably performed a stand-up set during an earthquake at The Ice House comedy club in Pasadena, California, in 2019 which went viral. She was commended for keeping the audience calm and serving quick-witted jokes while the earthquake went on.[21]
She made her late-night debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden on November 1, 2021 which was praised by Vulture which said it "won late night" the week that it aired.[22]
In September 2022, Okatsuka, alongside Joel Kim Booster and EDM DJ Freya Fox, hosted a comedy special at the 2022 Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival.[23][24][25]
Okatsuka taught Chelsea Handler and Guillermo Rodriguez how to do her Drop Challenge as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2022.[26] She made Stephen Colbert laugh with a Bible pun when she was on The Late Show in January 2023. She talks about how she discovered standup comedy through a Margaret Cho DVD, given to her by a friend during a boring sermon at church.[27]
On December 10, 2022, Okatsuka's debut stand-up special The Intruder premiered on HBO and HBO Max, which The New York Times named Best Debut of 2022,[28] and Vulture listed as one of the Best Comedy Specials of 2022.[29] The show won best comedy special at the Gracie Awards and Variety listed her in their 2023 Comedy Impact Report.[30][31]
Okatsuka's life story of being kidnapped by her grandmother to come to the U.S. was told on This American Life in September 2023 in an episode titled The One Place I Can't Go.[32] She was featured in Vanity Fair November 2023 issue photographed by Mark Seliger, playing the quarterback of a made-up football team while wearing couture.[33] She was profiled in PBS Newshour where she called the interviewer Amna Nawaz a "fellow weirdo" and said that performing for people means finding community.[34] She was on the cover of New York Times Magazine with Margaret Cho where Margaret crowned Okatsuka as her heir to comedy.[35] She appeared in Mike Birbiglia's documentary Good One: A Show About Jokes.[36]
On June 13, 2025, Okatsuka released her second comedy special Father on Hulu.[37][38]
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Personal life
Okatsuka has been married to actor and painter Ryan Harper Gray since 2023. The couple had a wedding ceremony in 2017, but six years later found out they had not filed the paperwork and were not legally married. Gray's mother has also suffered from schizophrenia like Okatsuka's.[1]
Works
As writer
Film
Albums
- 2020 – But I Control Me[40]
Specials
- 2022 – The Intruder - filmed at the Elsewhere Stage in Brooklyn, NY[41]
- 2025 – Father - filmed at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, CA[37]
Television
- 2022 – Fairview
- 2023 – History of the World: Part II
- 2024 – After Midnight
- 2024 – Good One: A Show About Jokes - Mike Birbiglia Documentary
Podcasts
- Why Won't You Date Me?, herself
- Trusty Hogs, herself
- Yo, Is This Racist?, herself
- Hollywood Handbook, herself
- The Margaret Cho, herself
- Natch Beaut, herself
- Sloppy Seconds, herself
- Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend, herself
- The Bechdel Cast, herself
- Pep Talks, herself
- Go Fact Yourself, herself
- I Said No Gifts, herself
- Don't Ask Tig,[42] herself
- WTF with Marc Maron, herself
- Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out, herself
- Lovett or Leave It, herself
- Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, herself
- The Three Questions with Andy Richter, herself
- Busy Phillips Is Doing Her Best,[43] herself
- Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker, herself
- Las Culturistas, herself
- The Blocks Podcast, herself
- Funny cuz it's true, herself
- Fresh Air, herself
- Everything Is Alive,[44] bagpipes
- Comedy Bang Bang, herself
- Sibling Rivalry,[45] herself
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References
External links
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