Anna Akana

Anna Akana (born Anna Kay Napualani Akana on August 18, 1989) is an American YouTuber, comedian, actress, filmmaker, and musician who first gained attention through her witty and often deeply personal video essays on YouTube. Raised as a military brat, she spent four years of her childhood in Japan before her family settled in Monterey County, California, where she later launched a career that blends comedy, storytelling, and social advocacy. The tragic suicide of her younger sister Kristina in 2007 profoundly shaped her artistic voice; Akana has spoken openly about the loss, creating the 2013 video “please don’t kill yourself” and later publishing the 2017 book So Much I Want to Tell You: Letters to My Little Sister as a tribute and guide for others dealing with grief. Her early comedy work began at age 19, but anxiety about live performance led her to the YouTube platform in 2011, where she quickly amassed a dedicated following with short films, music videos, and documentary‑style pieces that tackle topics from yellow fever to break‑up coping strategies. In addition to her online presence, Akana has appeared in a variety of television series and films, including Awkward (2011), Ant‑Man (2015), Hello, My Name Is Doris (2016), and voice roles as Gloria Sato on Big City Greens and Sasha Waybright on Amphibia. She also wrote, starred in, and executive‑produced the narrative feature Riley Rewind and the web series Youth & Consequences, demonstrating a versatility that spans screenwriting, directing, and producing. Her entrepreneurial spirit surfaced in 2015 with the launch of the clothing line Ghost & Stars, and she expanded into music the same year, releasing singles such as “Intervention” and the full album Casualty (2019) followed by the EP No Longer Yours (2021). Open about her identity, Akana publicly came out as bisexual in 2018 and has advocated for reproductive rights, sharing her personal abortion story in a 2019 YouTube documentary. Frequently collaborating with other creators, she co‑hosts the podcast Explain Things to Me, and continues to use her platform to champion mental‑health awareness, suicide prevention, and LGBTQ+ visibility while entertaining audiences worldwide.