Risa Mei

Mei started working in entertainment from age 7, after her second grade teacher noticed her singing abilities and a first performance at a school assembly lead to performing regularly both within and outside her school. Mei won "kid champion" on the first episode of Ed McMahon's The Next Big Star, performed on Showtime at the Apollo, and toured around Southern California as part of a local singing and dancing group. She booked her first commercial and landed an agent by age 9.^[1] Around this time, Mei discovered she had dwarfism and noticed the roles she was being offered had shifted towards "novelty" roles, and stopped receiving auditions for leading and background roles.^[2]

Mei attended Azusa Pacific University, and graduated with a bachelor's in music with a focus on vocal performance. While in college, Mei joined Beckii Cruel's Oishii Project, a Japanese pop idol group. She was also a founding member of 4TE, a Japanese electronic pop girl group, and the lead singer of Psycho Bando, a punk Japanese rock-inspired band.^[1]

After graduating, Mei worked as a suit and character actor for Universal Studios Japan on a contract basis, moving back and forth between the US and Japan for several years. When in Japan, Mei performed for shows such as Amazing Sesame Street, One Piece Premiere Shows, and was an atmospheric actor for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. While in the US, she booked commercials and landed her first motion capture role as Tilly the Tortoise in Word Party.^[1]

Mei is of Chinese and Indonesian descent. Mei met her husband while working at Universal Studios Japan.^[1]