Rinko Kikuchi

, born , January 6, 1981, is a Japanese actress. Kikuchi is the first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years. She is currently Japan's only living female Academy Award nominee in acting categories. The only other nominee was Miyoshi Umeki, who won the Best Supporting Actress award in 1957 for Sayonara.

Life and career

Kikuchi was born in Minamigaoka, Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture. She debuted in 1999 under her birth name, Yuriko Kikuchi, with the Kaneto Shindo-directed film . Soon after, in 2001, she starred in the acclaimed Kazuyoshi Komuri-directed film , which was featured across several international film festivals, including the Rotterdam Film Festival. In 2004, she appeared in the critically acclaimed Katsuhito Ishii-directed film , which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2006, she appeared in the critically acclaimed Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed film Babel, where she played Chieko Wataya, a deaf-mute teenage girl, in a role for which she was critically acclaimed and nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She won several, such as the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Female Performance (tying with Jennifer Hudson) and the Gotham Award for Best...
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