Karen Fukuhara

Making her big screen debut with a major bang, Karen Fukuhara took audiences by storm with her debut role as Katana in "Suicide Squad" (2016). Born in Los Angeles to Japanese immigrants, Fukuhara spent her youth becoming an accomplished martial artist. She also discovered a love of performing, and by the time she enrolled at UCLA, Fukuhara was interested in singing, joining the school's a cappella group, the Medleys. Fukuhara also found time during her college career to begin appearing on the Disney Channel in Japan, hosting a variety of shows aimed at younger viewers. When it came to landing her first onscreen role in her native United States, Fukuhara dove into the role of Katana with intensity. The action heavy movie called for numerous major stunts, but aside from a single dive roll, Fukuhara performed all of them herself. Fukuhara expressed happiness about honoring her heritage with the role, saying in a 2016 interview with Playboy, "As a first-generation Japanese American, I've always wanted to play a samurai warrior like my Suicide Squad character, Katana. Samurai are almost always male, so growing up in America I had a hard time figuring out role models."