Suzy Nakamura

Suzy Nakamura is an American actress and improv comedian born on December 2, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois. She appeared on Broadway in 2022 in POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive at the Shubert Theatre, playing the role of Jean.

Nakamura grew up in Chicago to parents of Japanese descent. Her father taught English in the Chicago Public Schools. Both of her parents died within a year of each other while she was in her twenties. She has one older brother. Nakamura attended Lane Technical College Prep High School, graduating in 1985, after which she joined MinaSama-No, an Asian-American theater company. She studied theater at Columbia College Chicago from 1987 to 1989, attending on alternating semesters while financing her own education. During this period she also worked at Crate & Barrel. In 1991, Nakamura became the first Asian American woman to join The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago, remaining with the troupe for five years. In 1993, she cofounded The Second City Detroit.

Her first film role came in Rea Tajiri's Strawberry Fields (1997), a Chicago-based production in which she played a troubled teen. The film was an official selection at the 54th Venice International Film Festival. Nakamura went on to accumulate extensive television credits, including guest appearances on According to Jim, Half and Half, 8 Simple Rules, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and How I Met Your Mother. She held a recurring role in the early seasons of The West Wing as an assistant to the Sam Seaborn character. In May 2015, ABC picked up Dr. Ken, starring Ken Jeong, with Nakamura cast as his wife; the series aired during the 2015–16 fall season. She was honored at the East West Players' 52nd Visionary Award in 2018. That same year, it was announced she had joined the HBO comedy series Avenue 5 as Iris Kimura, assistant to Josh Gad's character Herman Judd; the series premiered on January 19, 2020. Nakamura also played Dr. Miura in the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Karen in the Netflix series Dead to Me, and investigative reporter Irene Abe in the FX crime drama Snowfall.

Beyond her Broadway appearance, Nakamura's stage work includes numerous productions, among them An Infinite Ache, Coed Prison Sluts – The Musical, The Redwood Curtain, Pen to Paper, and a National Touring Company production with The Second City. Nakamura was previously married to Harry Hannigan; the two separated in 2018 and subsequently divorced.