Atsuko Okatsuka's online fans think she's 'mothering,' but real comedy heads know — she is 'Father'

The archetypal clip Atsuko Okatsuka filmed a drama special, 2022’s “The Intruder” for HBO and Max, she didn’t person wellness insurance. A batch has changed since then.

Instantly recognizable for her terrible vessel haircut and “art teacher”-esque, maximalist fashion, the Los Angeles-based comedian has since go insured, hired an assistant, embarked connected a satellite tour, amassed much than 2 cardinal Instagram followers, met household members she didn’t cognize she had and filmed her 2nd drama special, “Father,” which was released June 13 connected Hulu.

“I deliberation I have, like, 12 agents oregon something, and I’m like, ‘Is that adjacent a thing?’” Okatsuka says implicit Zoom. Wearing a purple, yellowish and magenta colorblocked T-shirt, Okatsuka flashes aqua nails topped disconnected with blistery canine charms. “It comes with leveling up, right? Not to punctuation ‘Spider-Man,’ but … yeah, responsibility, right?”

The gathering blocks of Okatsuka’s beingness stay successful place, though. Amid traveling the globe connected her “Full Grown” tour, being interviewed by Stephen Colbert connected “The Late Show” and Chelsea Handler connected “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and being named 1 of Variety’s Top 10 Comics to Watch successful 2022 (among different accolades), the Taiwanese Japanese stand-up inactive spends astir of her clip with her Grandma Li, her mother, and hubby Ryan Harper Gray, who is an actor, manager and shaper and helps negociate Okatsuka. Family members diagnostic prominently successful Okatsuka’s comedy, to specified an grade that a batch of her sentences statesman with “My grandmother…” and “My husband, Ryan…”

“I americium an unfastened publication successful that I genuinely privation to link with people,” Okatsuka says. “I’m conscionable gonna extremity up telling you what’s happening successful my life. That’s the lone mode I tin effort to link with different humans.”

(Mary Ellen Matthews / Disney)

In this respect, Okatsuka jokingly refers to herself arsenic codependent, but from a drama standpoint, her familial riffing serves arsenic a useful world-building device, gathering a consciousness of familiarity with audiences, who nary uncertainty locomotion retired of Okatsuka’s sets feeling similar they really cognize her. “I americium an unfastened publication successful that I genuinely privation to link with people,” she says. “I’m conscionable gonna extremity up telling you what’s happening successful my life. That’s the lone mode I tin effort to link with different humans. It conscionable people happens to beryllium that I americium with my mom, grandma and Ryan a lot. I emotion that the fans person gotten to cognize the family. They tin beryllium Team Ryan. They could beryllium Team Me. I deliberation astir often they’re Team Ryan. They’re like, ‘Oh, Atsuko did it again. She can’t find her keys.’”

Okatsuka’s scatterbrained qualities — similar losing her keys, realizing she’s ne'er erstwhile utilized the washer and dryer and depending connected Gray to acceptable up her Zoom calls — are not lone endearing, they besides person informed her special’s rubric of “Father.” As Okatsuka’s prima rose, her fans person taken to calling her “Mother,” a mostly Gen Z slang word signaling approval. But to Okatsuka, a “mother” knows however to bash things similar usage the washer and dryer and capable retired paperwork correctly, which she remains willfully ignorant about. For example, she often tells a communicative astir however she and Gray forgot to record their matrimony certificate erstwhile they archetypal got joined successful 2017. When Okatsuka went to enactment Gray connected her wellness security successful 2023, she learned determination was nary grounds of them being married. “What astir the unorganized girls?” she asks her audience. “What astir the b— that crumbles easily? We exist! We are not a monolith… No, no, no... I americium Father.”

While Okatsuka has been doing stand-up for the amended portion of a decade, starting retired with section sets astatine the Virgil and Dynasty Typewriter, she changeable to viral fame during the pandemic erstwhile she posted a video of her (and her grandmother) abruptly “dropping” to Beyoncé’s “Yoncé” successful unexpected locations similar Little Tokyo and the market store. Generating millions of views, the #DropChallenge exploded, with everyone from Mandy Moore to Serena Williams emulating Okatsuka.

In summation to classical observational and absurdist comedy, portion of Okatsuka’s charm is besides that she has a existent knack for tapping into net humor. Across her societal media channels, she dances and puts her ain rotation connected TikTok skits and trends. A caller illustration is simply a clip of her doing Doechii’s “Anxiety” creation portion her grandma hovers successful an effort to provender her dumplings.

While “Father” is simply a self-deprecating jab astatine Okatsuka’s nondomestic qualities, the rubric besides refers to Okatsuka’s caller reunion with her dada successful Japan. This marks the opening of a winding beingness journey, which Okatsuka has spoken of astatine magnitude successful her comedy, arsenic good arsenic successful an occurrence of “This American Life” titled “I Coulda Grown Big In Japan.”

Her communicative began erstwhile Okatsuka’s parents, who met connected a Japanese dating show, divorced soon aft her commencement successful 1988. At first, the comedian lived with her begetter successful Chiba; later, she moved successful with her parent and grandmother. But erstwhile her parent began having intelligence wellness struggles (Okatsuka’s parent was aboriginal diagnosed with schizophrenia), Okatsuka’s grandma moved everyone to Los Angeles to beryllium person to her uncle successful West L.A. At the time, Okatsuka’s grandma told an 8-year-old Okatsuka they were going connected a “two-month vacation.” But arsenic 8 weeks turned into years, Okatsuka started to wonderment if possibly she’d been kidnapped — different conception she’s worked into her sets. “We’re conscionable similar a chiller, much polite, Japanese ‘Jerry Springer’ show,” Okatsuka cracks of her familial backstory.

When asked what it meant to reconnect with her father, Okatsuka becomes somber. “It filled a batch of holes — like, questions that I had. Like, did my grandma kidnap me? I besides learned your gut is often right.”

Technically, Okatsuka was kidnapped, if lone due to the fact that her begetter had afloat custody of her astatine the time. Okatsuka mightiness gag astir suffering from Stockholm syndrome, but she truly is champion friends with her grandma, who was her superior caregiver successful puerility and present has her ain societal media instrumentality base.

“That’s wherefore I got into comedy,” Atsuko says. “So that different radical tin consciousness seen, and I consciousness seen too.”

(Lee Jameson)

Ironically, it didn’t hap to Okatsuka to prosecute drama until she was successful her aboriginal 20s. Her archetypal vulnerability to stand-up was when, successful eighth grade, a person slipped her a Margaret Cho DVD during a religion sermon. “I was like, this is badass. But obscurity did my encephalon go, ‘That’s gotta beryllium me,’” Okatsuka says. “I dreamed beauteous small. When I was a kid successful L.A., my imagination was to enactment astatine an crystal pick parlor … And past astatine 17, I did. [I worked at] Cold Stone Creamery successful West L.A. I said, ‘Now what? I’ve already reached my goal. I peaked astatine 17. I person to imagination more.’”

Okatsuka spent a twelvemonth and a fractional attending UC Riverside and past transferred to CalArts, wherever she majored successful originative penning and film/video. “You tin conscionable get successful with an creation portfolio; you don’t request grades,” she deadpans. “My involvement was successful the arts. I wasn’t an academic.” After creation school, Okatsuka decided to truly marque a spell astatine stand-up amid juggling a fistful of jobs — canine walking, teaching cinema astatine College of the Canyons successful Santa Clarita and creation fittingness successful Atwater Village. “But stand-up drama was ever archetypal for me,” she says. “Sometimes I would, you know, instrumentality disconnected from teaching assemblage assemblage and get Ryan to substitute for me. It was wholly illegal.”

In 2018, Okatsuka got her now-signature vessel haircut, which has made her truthful recognizable that fans each implicit the satellite amusement up to her sets wearing bowl-cut wigs. She mightiness kid astir astir being stuck with it (“because my brand,” she says successful “Father”), but she truly does delight successful its permanence, simply due to the fact that it makes radical truthful happy. Plus, her fans went to the occupation of buying and customizing lookalike wigs. “I mean, successful this economy? They gotta beryllium capable to deterioration their wigs again the adjacent clip they travel to spot me.”

Fans volition get their accidental to interruption retired the wigs again. After “Father”, Okatsuka is heading backmost connected the roadworthy successful September for the Big Bowl Tour. But there’s a bittersweet constituent to Okatsuka’s always-expanding schedule. The busier she gets, the little clip determination is to walk with her parent and grandmother. “The constituent of each this is we tin each beryllium unneurotic more, and we could beryllium that blessed household that we were trying to beryllium erstwhile we archetypal moved to America,” she says. “That’s benignant of what I’m talking astir successful my caller show. It’s a existent happening that I’m figuring retired close now.”

For the clip being, Okatsuka has signed her parent up for Instagram, wherever she tin spot her girl anytime she likes. “It’s taking a infinitesimal to thatch her these things, but astatine slightest she tin look astatine what I’m up to,” Okatsuka says. “You conscionable click connected my face, and you spot what I’m up to that day. And that’s however she keeps up with me. We tin bash telephone calls, but there’s thing similar being capable to spot your favourite idiosyncratic successful your hand.”

Ultimately, Okatsuka revels successful the accidental to link with arsenic galore radical arsenic possible, wherever she mightiness beryllium successful the world. “That’s wherefore I got into comedy, right? So that different radical tin consciousness seen, and I consciousness seen too.”