Meet Yuyu Kitamura, who plays Niko in Dead Boy Detectives: from growing up as a third-culture kid in Hong Kong, to studying drama at NYU and making her first short film during Covid

Jan 16 , 2025

Meet Yuyu Kitamura, who plays Niko in Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives and grew up as a third-culture kid in Hong Kong. Photo: @yuyukitt/Instagram

Kitamura’s journey has been one of resilience, creativity and mental health awareness after she overcame body-image issues, depression and self-harm as a teenager

Actress Yuyu Kitamura scored her first big break in the hit Netflix show Dead Boy Detectives. She plays a Japanese boarding school student – and audiences might have spotted that she is similar in some ways to her character Niko.

Yuyu Kitamura (second from right) plays a Japanese student in the Netflix series Dead Boy Detectives. Photo: @yuyukitt/Instagram

The artist and creative has tried her hand at everything from directing to self-publishing a book. Here, we look at who Kitamura is beyond the screen.

Yuyu Kitamura is a third-culture kid

Yuyu Kitamura was born and went to school in Hong Kong. Photo: @yuyukitt/Instagram

Born to Japanese parents, Kitamura, 25, spent her formative years in her native Hong Kong, where she went to international school.

There, she was exposed to a diverse set of classmates in one of Asia’s most international cities. She credits her Hong Kong upbringing with shaping her perspective and career path, as it was at secondary school that she had the opportunity to enrol in theatre classes. In an interview with Wonderland Magazine, Kitamura shared that her life would have been quite different if she hadn’t been exposed to such a culturally rich environment while growing up.

Experiencing Hong Kong’s Westernised culture as a Japanese native, she added, broadened her horizons, although she experienced difficulties around identity.

Her theatre dreams led her to New York

Yuyu Kitamura lived her dream by moving to New York to study theatre. Photo: @yuyukitt/Instagram

By the tender age of 10, Kitamura knew she wanted to live and study in New York. She described herself as obsessed with studying in the city and had New York University at the top of her list as the best option for drama. She ultimately landed a spot at her dream school and graduated with a degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

She made her first short film during Covid

Yuyu Kitamura wrote, directed and acted in the short film Invited In during the pandemic. Photo: @yuyukitt/Instagram

After graduation, the actress decided to head home and return to her beloved Hong Kong. Hit by Covid travel restrictions, she took matters into her own hands and created, wrote, directed and acted in a short film, Invited In (2021), which delves into topics of isolation and finding a sense of community online.