Erika Ono-araa is a famous Japanese American singer and actress. Born inagine, California, she is half Japanese and half Korean. Her official title is “Ms. Nationality: Japanese American.” In her youth she was a member of the Jazz Dance Theater Company.
A talented singer and performer, Erika Ono-araa were able to develop her musical talent while she was studying in San Francisco as a student of violin and piano in the early 1950s. After graduation she went to Tokyo to study vocal and performance. In this time she became acquainted with the works of jazz singer/songwriter Ella Fitzgerald and she was mesmerized by her work. The resulting work she did as a singer and songwriter made her an overnight sensation all over the United States and the world.
At the age of twenty-four, Erika Ono-araa began a six-year singing and performing career in Japan. She was able to succeed in both her singing career and in her dancing one due to her natural growth of facial and body height. During her stay in Japan, Ono-araa also began learning Japanese dance and design as well. Later in life, she went to the United States to study at Washington University in St. Louis where she pursued her degree in music therapy.