Mitzi is a curious person. Born to a Japanese professor of politics and a midwestern Jewish genealogist in a predominantly white, Christian California neighborhood, she gave up fitting in at an early age and gravitated toward the alternative track: she wrote comic books, shot I Love Lucy sketches with friends, and from age nine trained 20+ hours a week as a competitive gymnast, ranking 8th in the nation in her beloved uneven bars. She graduated from UC Davis with honors in creative writing and Japanese language, plus a minor in art, and has made a career of her childhood obsessions: writing, drawing, film and backflips.

 

Now in New York, Mitzi contributes her particular talents and peculiar humor to a variety of projects: there's Lowlives, a melancholy comedy series she co-everythinged with funny guy John Hein about a cranky, mixed millennial couple; The Shit Show, a riot of a talk show about the acting industry; several short and feature scripts of hilariously dissimilar tones; and appearances in other people's work. The elevated zombie love story Herd in which she stars alongside Ellen Adair and an enviable ensemble (Jeremy Holm, Dana Snyder, Tim V Murphy, Corbin Bernsen, Amanda Fuller) is near completion, while the J-Horror epic Bashira directed by Nickson Fong (Godzilla, The Patriot, The Matrix franchise), in which she stars among Liam Aiken and Kiki Sukezane, is collecting awards on the international festival circuit, and several recent projects have found homes at Tribeca, Outfest and Dances with Films. You can see her in award-winning shorts (like 86'd, a Koch-era NYC late-nite deli story written and directed by Alan Palomo of Neon Indian and shot on film by Safdie Brothers' go-to Sean Price Williams, which premiered at Maryland Film Festival and stars Mitzi alongside comedian Seaton Smith and Buddy Duress of Good Time), on TV (e.g., as Naomi Scott's undie-entrepreneur bff in Japan's Modern Love or Mamoudou Athie's cheating ex-gf in Archive 81), or in one of dozens of commercials for snack foods, iPads and birth control. To find her in person, check the hot sauce aisle or a circus school near you. A member of SAG-AFTRA, she is represented by CESD Talent Agency and Untitled Entertainment.