Erika Karata

Erika Karata, born on September 19, 1997 in the coastal town of Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, first entered the public eye as a teenage model after being discovered while working at a farm theme park. Her early career was marked by a rapid succession of commercial work, most notably as the image face for Sony Financial Holdings, and a memorable appearance in Girls' Generation's music video “Divine,” which introduced her to a broader Asian audience. In 2014 she officially debuted as a professional model, signing with the Japanese agency FLaMme, and quickly became a sought‑after runway and print talent, recognized for her distinctive height of 169 cm and striking presence. In 2017 she expanded her ambitions to South Korea, signing with BH Entertainment, where she not only continued modeling but also began acting in Korean productions, appearing in an LG commercial and in Naul’s music video “Emptiness.” Her breakthrough on screen came the following year when she was cast as the lead in Ryōsuke Hashiguchi’s critically acclaimed film Asako I & II, a role that earned her the Best New Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival and solidified her status as a serious actress. Karata’s filmography soon diversified with roles in the Japanese thriller Lock-On Love and a prominent part in the hit Korean drama Arthdal Chronicles, demonstrating her linguistic versatility and cross‑cultural appeal. Despite her rising trajectory, her personal life attracted intense media scrutiny in early 2020 when a Japanese tabloid reported an alleged extramarital affair with actor Masahiro Higashide, leading to her withdrawal from the series Prayers in the Emergency Room and the removal of episodes she had co‑written. The controversy sparked a broader conversation about privacy and celebrity culture in both Japan and South Korea, yet Karata has continued to focus on her craft, returning to the screen in subsequent projects and maintaining a strong fan base across East Asia. As of the present day, she remains active in both modeling and acting, contributing to advertising campaigns, fashion editorials, and an expanding slate of film and television roles, while her agency affiliation with FLaMme and BH Entertainment underscores her bi‑national professional footprint.