Gina Hiraizumi is the oldest of three sisters and was born in Torrance, CA. Raised in a bi-cultural upbringing, she has been bilingual in English and Japanese since childhood. Her mother Kumiko is from Tokyo, while her father Gary is a third-generation Japanese-American who speaks only English. Gina excelled in classical piano, having trained at the Yamaha Music School for over 15 years. Earning accolades in piano recitals nationwide, she can still perform "Fur Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven at the drop of a hat.
In high school she was the MVP of her basketball team, traveling nationwide and competing in numerous Asian-American tournaments. She switched gears completely when she became a dancer on Pep Squad Songs, that led to a stint as a dancer on Soul Train (1971) when she was only 16. She tried to audition for the L.A. Laker cheerleaders known as the Laker Girls, but discovered that she was too young to qualify. Shortly afterward she enrolled in acting and theatre training, and was cast in her first Japanese TV commercial for "House Curry" with her entire family. Her high school senior class voted her "Most Likely to Become Rich & Famous."
Gina's first acting job was for the MTV soap opera Spyder Games (2001) as Akiko, while continuing to train for another four years under acting teacher Aaron Speiser. She split her time among working part-time jobs to pay for acting classes, going to school and auditioning. In the years following she was cast as the lead love interest in Academy Award-winning director Chris Tashima's period piece Day of Independence (2003) and playing martial arts superstar Jason Scott Lee's (Dragon, l'histoire de Bruce Lee (1993)) beauty queen wife in the WWII period piece L'honneur des guerriers (2006).
More acting roles followed, but Gina decided to take some time off from Hollywood to experience living in a different city while she was still young. She was accepted into The Juilliard School in New York City, and moved there in 2005. There she studied and trained in vocal arts, honing her craft of singing.
While living in New York, Gina performed her first National Anthem gig at the legendary Madison Square Garden for the WNBA. Soon after she returned to Los Angeles and performed the anthem for crowds of over 50,000 for the L.A. Clippers basketball team at the Staples Center and the L.A. Dodgers baseball team at Dodger Stadium. She has also performed live on ESPN for the NCAA Diamondhead Classic in Honolulu, HI. She was the first Asian-American singer to perform on the gospel music show Praise the Lord (1973) on TBN in Chicago, IL.
Gina later snagged TV roles on Castle (2009), FlashForward (2009), Shark (2006) and Quintuplets (2004). She became the face of Kilauea Fire, an Hawaiian BBQ sauce, in an advertising campaign seen in the Hawaiian Airlines magazine "Hana Hou". In 2008 she moved to Tokyo, Japan, to explore the film industry overseas. There she was chosen to be featured in a 12-page editorial spread in The Peninsula, a five-star hotel conglomerate publication in Tokyo, alongside such Japanese legends as Tadanori Yokoo, Kane Kosugi and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
She has plans to make a full-length album, but in the meanwhile she has released a music video for her first song, "Never Say Never", directed by Patricio Ginelsa Jr., who has also directed The Black Eyed Peas videos "Bebot" and "APL Song".
