There are a lot of people who have Japanese heritage, however you might not be able to tell based on their name or appearance. Here is a list of 7 famous people who are part Japanese that you probably didn’t know about!

1. Fred Armisen

Fred Armisen is best known as cast member on SNL, and starring on the show Portlandia along side Carrie Brownstein. Fred is a quarter Japanese and says even though his father is half Japanese, he’s culturally German. His father’s father is Japanese, who happened to have been a famous Japanese dancer, and even starred on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! Fred also looks a lot like him, here’s a video of him showing a picture of his grandfather on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon:

2. Dean Cain

Dean Cain is best known as Clark Kent/Superman on the 90’s television show “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”. He also was the host of the television show “Ripley’s believe it or not”. Dean is a quarter Japanese, and his last name by birth is Tanaka.

3. Ann Curry

Ann Curry is a famous news journalist who used to work for NBC, (she recently left NBC after 25 years). Her mother is Japanese and her father was an American sailor. She spent her early childhood on a naval base in Japan.

4. Marié Digby

Marié Digby is an American musician, best known for her cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” which received over 22 million views. Marié is half Japanese, and her name probably comes from the katakana-tized version of Marie, which is pronounced マリエ.

5. Jero

Jero is a quarter Japanese, and is the first person with African heritage to become an Enka singer in the history of Japan. He began pursuing his dream to become an Enka artist because of the influence of his Japanese grandmother, who had met his grandfather at a dance during World War II.

6. Meiko

Meiko is an American singer/songwriter who’s songs have appeared on a lot of various television shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy”. Meiko is one-quarter Japanese and in attempt to get in touch with her Japanese side adopted the nickname Meiko. While it’s pronounced something like “May-ee-ko” in Japan, she pronounces it “MEE-ko”. (She didn’t learn of the mispronunciation for some time, and “didn’t have the heart” to change the spelling after).

7. Austin St. John

Best known as the red power ranger, (and looking a bit like Elvis in this picture), Austin St. John has been practicing martial arts since he was five years old and holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a first-degree black belt in Judo, and practices Kenpo. In addition to Japanese, Austin is of Native American, Irish, Italian and Spanish decent.