Michelle Zauner

Michelle Chongmi Zauner (born March 29, 1989) is an American musician and author, known as the lead vocalist of the alternative pop band Japanese Breakfast.

Her 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, spent 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list.

In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the category Innovators on their annual list.

Zauner was raised in Eugene, Oregon, and began playing music and hosting public performances when she was 15.

Michelle Chongmi Zauner was born on March 29, 1989, in Seoul, South Korea, to Chongmi, a housewife, and Joel Zauner, a car salesman.

Her mother was Korean and her father is American of Jewish heritage.

Zauner was raised in Eugene, Oregon, where the family moved when she was nine months old.

Growing up, Zauner and her mother visited their family in Seoul most summers.

At school, she was often mistaken for being Japanese or Chinese by classmates she believed were unaware of the existence of Korea.

At 15, Zauner asked her mother to buy a guitar; she began taking weekly guitar lessons at The Lesson Factory, learning chords, and writing songs.

Her first songs were about "friendships and their fallouts."

She began playing at local open mic nights and at performance venues around Eugene under the name Little Girl, Big Spoon, much to the chagrin of her mother, who hoped that her daughter would not pursue a career in music.

She began advertising her music around Eugene and frequently played at the W.O.W. Hall as an opening act for singers such as Mike Coykendall, M. Ward, and Maria Taylor.

Zauner also played at school benefits.

Her musical activities strained her relationship with her mother, which caused Zauner to become depressed during senior year at South Eugene High School.

Zauner attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she created an independent major in creative production and became fond of authors such as Philip Roth, Richard Ford, and John Updike.

She preferred to write fiction to avoid writing about her mixed-race identity as a Korean-American, believing that if she did, she would be playing the "race card".

In the fall of 2008, Zauner joined fellow Bryn Mawr students Marisa Helgeson, Casey Sowa, and K.O.H. to form Post Post, an indie pop band that rehearsed in Helgeson's dorm.

Post Post released an EP, Meta Meta, on September 4, 2009, through the label Awkwardcore Records.

Zauner also played in a band called Birthday Girlz, through which she wrote the song "Everybody Wants To Love You."

In 2011, after graduating from Bryn Mawr College, Zauner and three other musicians formed Little Big League, a Philadelphia-based emo band that released two albums, These Are Good People (2013) and Tropical Jinx (2014).

She graduated from Bryn Mawr in 2011, then waited tables and worked at Philadelphia music venue Union Transfer's coat check while trying to get her music career off the ground.

In 2011, Zauner started the Philadelphia emo band Little Big League with Ian Dykstra, Kevin O'Halloran, and Deven Craige.

O'Halloran and Zauner met in classes at Bryn Mawr; the two met Craige at a Post Post show and Dykstra at a party.

On April 1, 2012, the band released an eponymous EP.

Zauner, who in 2013 began to release music under the name Japanese Breakfast, left Little Big League in 2014 when she returned to Eugene to care for her ailing mother.

Fronted by Zauner, it recorded music for its debut studio album in Craige's studio, at Berk's Warehouse in Philadelphia, wrapping in January 2013.

The album was released on the Tiny Engines label as These Are Good People on August 6, 2013, and the band launched a tour.

These Are Good People spawned the single "My Very Own You".

In 2013, Zauner began recording songs that she released under the name Japanese Breakfast.

She has said she picked the name after seeing a gif of Japanese Breakfast, deciding that the term would be considered "exotic" to American people, and hoping it would make people wonder what a Japanese Breakfast consists of.

In June 2013, Zauner and musician Rachel Gagliardi of the duo Slutever recorded and posted one song a day on the Tumblr blog rachelandmichelledojune.

In 2016, she released Japanese Breakfast's debut album, Psychopomp, which centered on grief and her mother's death.

A followup album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, was released in 2017.

A third, Jubilee, was released in 2021 and became the band's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 56; it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

As Japanese Breakfast, Zauner also wrote the soundtrack for the 2021 video game Sable.

Zauner's essays have been published in Glamour, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar.

She released her first book, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, via Alfred A. Knopf in 2021 to critical acclaim.

It is to be adapted into a feature film by Orion Pictures, with Zauner providing the soundtrack.

She has directed most of Japanese Breakfast's music videos; she has also directed videos for American singer Jay Som and power pop band Charly Bliss.