Mitzi is a curious person. Born to a Japanese professor of politics and a midwestern Jewish genealogist in a predominantly white, Christian California neighborhood, she gave up fitting in at an early age and gravitated toward the alternative track: she wrote comic books, shot I Love Lucy sketches with friends, and from age nine trained 20+ hours a week as a competitive gymnast, ranking 8th in the nation in her beloved uneven bars. She graduated from UC Davis with honors in creative writing and Japanese language, plus a minor in art, and has made a career of her childhood obsessions: writing, drawing, film and backflips.

 

Now in New York, Mitzi contributes her particular talents and peculiar humor to a variety of projects. The elevated zombie love story Herd, in which she stars alongside Ellen Adair and an enviable ensemble (Jeremy Holm, Dana Snyder, Tim V Murphy, Corbin Bernsen, Amanda Fuller), was named one of the best genre films of the year by Yahoo Movies and Fangoria, while the J-Horror epic Bashira directed by Nickson Fong (Godzilla, The Patriot, The Matrix franchise), in which she stars among Liam Aiken and Kiki Sukezane, is collecting awards on the international festival circuit. You can see her in Slamdance 2024's Grand Jury Breakout Feature Chaperone as a 29-year-old failing to adult, or in award-winning shorts (like The Looming Cloud, as a sibling bickering about how to post about Mom's death on social media, which premiered at Sundance 2024 to rave reviews, or 86'd, a Koch-era late-nite deli story written and directed by Alan Palomo of Neon Indian and shot on film by Safdie Brothers' go-to Sean Price Williams, which premiered at Maryland Film Festival and stars Mitzi alongside comedian Seaton Smith and Buddy Duress (of Good Time), on TV (e.g., as Naomi Scott's undie-entrepreneur bff in Japan's Modern Love or Mamoudou Athie's cheating ex-gf in Archive 81), or in one of dozens of commercials for snack foods, iPads and birth control. To find her in person, check the hot sauce aisle or a circus school near you.