Atsuko Okatsuka

Atsuko Okatsuka (( ; She was named one of Variety "Top 10 Comics to Watch" in 2022 and is the second Asian-American woman to have a standup special on HBO.)

Early life Okatsuka was born in Taiwan on May 27, 1988, the daughter of a Taiwanese mother and Japanese father. She spent her early childhood in Japan. Her parents had met on a Japanese dating show and divorced when she was a child, in part due to her mother developing schizophrenia after giving birth. After the divorce, custody was given to Okatsuka's father, who lived in Chiba.

At the age of eight, Okatsuka was kidnapped by her maternal grandmother and taken to her mother in Los Angeles, where she lived for the next seven years as an undocumented immigrant in a room above her maternal uncle's garage. She has said that she used humor and outlandishness to get her mother's attention while growing up: "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." She has also mentioned watching comedians Lucille Ball, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Ken Shimura during her childhood. where she was part of the cheerleading squad. She then studied psychology at the University of California, Riverside, before dropping out While attending community college in Valencia, California, she found that her interest in comedy and performing was something that she wanted to pursue seriously: