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Midori FrancisAmerican actress
Date of Birth: 16.04.1994
Country:  USA |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Born in Rumson, New Jersey, Midori Francis is the daughter of Joanna and Ken Iwami, the current chancellor of Indiana University Northwest. Francis, named after her paternal grandmother, is of Japanese descent on her father's side and Irish and Italian on her mother's. Growing up in a predominantly white town during the 90s and early 2000s, she experienced racial discrimination and bullying. She identifies as hapa, a term for individuals of mixed European and Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry.
Francis graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in 2009 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2014. During her time at Rutgers, she studied abroad in London, trained with Tim Carroll, and performed in "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at Shakespeare's Globe.
Theater Career
Upon graduating from Rutgers, Francis landed stage roles in regional productions of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," and "Peter and the Starcatcher" as Nina and Molly, respectively. She won Best Female Performance at the 2016 New York Innovative Theatre Awards and received an ensemble nomination for her role as Megan in the Off-Broadway production of "Connected" at 59E59 Theaters.
From 2017 to 2018, she was in the original cast of "The Wolves," receiving ensemble awards at the Obie and Drama Desk Awards. At the latter, Francis was also nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Ming Pfeiffer in "Ordinary Girls."
Film and Television Career
Francis made her feature film debut in "Ocean's 8" in 2018. The following year, she appeared in "The Laundromat" and "Good Boys." In October 2019, it was announced that Francis would star alongside Austin Abrams in the 2020 Netflix holiday romantic comedy series "Dash & Lily," an adaptation of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's young adult novel.
For her performance, Francis was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Fiction Program at the 2021 Daytime Emmy Awards. She went on to star alongside Victoria Justice in the Netflix fantasy comedy "Afterlife of the Party" in 2021.
In March 2021, it was announced that Francis had joined the main cast of the HBO Max series "The Sex Lives of College Girls," which premiered later that year. In January 2022, Francis was set to star in the television thriller "Unseen" alongside Jolene Purdy, directed by Yoko Okumura in her directorial debut.
In July 2022, it was announced that Francis had joined the main cast of the 19th season of the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy."
Personal Life
Francis identifies as queer and is in a relationship with Jeanne-Marie Rabenheimer, a makeup artist. She is a vocal advocate for Asian representation in the media and often speaks out about her experiences as an Asian American woman in Hollywood.
