Saki Miata is a Japanese-English bilingual actress who quickly learns foreign-accented English. Her TV debut was South Park’s “Chinpokomon” episode where she played a live action Japanese-accented-English-speaking character within the cartoon show. Since then, she was on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Wasteland” and has played Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean and North Korean roles, as well as Japanese and American. She currently appears on UrbanFlix TV's "Cocaine Sisters" as Ms. Kim, a North Korean landlord in a Black neighborhood.
Saki received a Best Actress Bronze Award for Best Actress in May 2020 from the Los Angeles Independent Shorts Awards and nominated for Best Actress Award in July 2020, both for her role of Liu, a Chinese woman in the thriller short "ROOM 3." Then in 2021, Saki was nominated for the Best Actress Award at the International Black and Diversity Film Festival for her role of Aki in a feature film "Hank and Jolene."
She was born and raised in Japan and moved to Michigan at the age of fifteen. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in math from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She started acting at Bungakuza Theatre Company in Tokyo where she played the role of Emily in “Our Town” then moved to Los Angeles.
From 2006 to 2011, Saki anchored "JATV News" and covered various topics that would appeal to the Japanese and the Japanese American community in Southern California and Hawaii weekly. She not only anchored but also often produced some segments. Saki continues to emcee as a host of corporate and community live events.
Most recently on stage in LA, Saki played a comedic role of Obachan in a musical "Letters To Eve" at the Miles Memorial Theater in Santa Monica, California in the spring and winter of 2017. Saki belonged to The Garage Theatre Company, led by award-winning director Robert Allan Ackerman. In March and April 2016, the group produced an ensemble play "Blood" written and directed by Ackerman. Saki played the role of Rei Ninomiya, the mother of the hero boy. Both "Letters To Eve" and "Blood" received rave reviews from numerous stage critics.
For voice-over work, Saki played the voice of the character Vy Le in the English dubbing of a Japanese TV animation series “The Reflection” (co-created by Stan Lee and Hiroshi Nagahama). The English version can be watched on Crunchyroll.com. Saki’s voice can also be heard in FCI News Catch Community News segments on KXLA every morning during the week.
Saki is also a dialect coach, professional translator and interpreter and owns her own company that offers such bilingual services. She has connected the superhero creator, late Stan Lee to the Japanese anime production companies and has co-produced “Heroman” (TV Tokyo) and “The Reflection” (NHK).
Saki has launched her own YouTube channel called “American English AHA!” to share with the Japanese audience her method of training the mouth to be able to speak American English. She also coaches non-Japanese actors when they have Japanese dialogues.
In addition, she is a sake sommelier, a certified massage therapist and a professional interpreter (simultaneous and consecutive).