Biography

Michelle Chongmi Zauner (born March 29, 1989) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author, known as the lead vocalist of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast. Her 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, spent 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list. In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the category Innovators on their annual list.

Zauner was raised in Eugene, Oregon, and began playing music and hosting public performances when she was 15. In 2011, after graduating from Bryn Mawr College, Zauner and three other musicians formed Little Big League, a Philadelphia-based emo band that released two albums, These Are Good People (2013) and Tropical Jinx (2014). Zauner, who in 2013 began to release music under the name Japanese Breakfast, left Little Big League in 2014 when she returned to Eugene to care for her ailing mother. In 2016, she released Japanese Breakfast's debut album, Psychopomp, which centered on grief and her mother's death. A followup album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, was released in 2017. A third, Jubilee, was released in 2021 and became the band's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 56; it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. As Japanese Breakfast, Zauner also wrote the soundtrack for the 2021 video game Sable.

Zauner's essays have been published in Glamour, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar. She released her first book, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, via Alfred A. Knopf in 2021 to critical acclaim. It is to be adapted into a feature film by Orion Pictures, with Zauner providing the soundtrack. She has directed most of Japanese Breakfast's music videos; she has also directed videos for American singer Jay Som and power pop band Charly Bliss.