Actor/ Singer / Mover / Maker
ALOHA E KOMO MAI (hello, welcome)
Eiko Moon-Yamamoto (she/they) was born in Tokyo to a Japanese and Korean family — two cultures with a complicated history between them. She grew up between Honolulu and a farming community in Central Valley, where her family were the only Asian-Americans. She has never quite belonged to one place, and has always carried more than one home. It is why they are drawn to stories: not only those that live in the margins, but the canonical works of the American theater that have too rarely been told through bodies like theirs — and the belief that they are richer for it. Eiko has tested this conviction across the range — from Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to immigrate to America, in Lloyd Suh's The Chinese Lady, to Elizabeth Condell in Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will, to M'Lynn Eatenton in Steel Magnolias.This commitment extends to the development of new works. They have collaborated with Playwrights Foundation, PlayOn Shakespeare, Magic Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Crowded Fire, Z Space, AlterLab, and Company One (Boston) — institutions at the forefront of expanding whose stories the American stage tells and how. Eiko is an Artistic Associate of Rainbow Zebra Productions at the Magic Theatre and a PlayGround SF company member. To foster the next generation, they have worked with young playwrights at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Young Writers of Color Collective) and the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts — work that reflects the same belief in whose stories deserve to be told. The first in her family to earn a college degree, Eiko holds a BA from UCLA and a BFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco.Selected credits include M'Lynn Eatenton in Steel Magnolias (Sierra Repertory Theatre); The House of Bernarda Alba (Oakland Theater Project); Cymbeline (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); Jack's Mother in Into the Woods (San Francisco Playhouse); Emily Whitman in Follies (San Francisco Playhouse); Clue (San Francisco Playhouse); u/s Marmee & Aunt March, world premiere of Lauren Gunderson's adaptation of Alcott's Little Women (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); and u/s Sugar & Letter Writer #2, Tiny Beautiful Things (San Francisco Playhouse). She is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and the Ring of Keys coalition.Eiko learned Lindy Hop at the epicenter of its resurgence in Los Angeles, seeking out the old timers who first lived the music. She met her life partner on that dance floor — and together they are raising a hapa son, Kai, who, like his mother, carries more than one history.Aloha Nui Loa!
An unforgettable romance set against the sweeping tides of World War II.
Against the backdrop of the Pacific War of WWII, South Pacific blends high-stakes wartime romance with a poignant exploration of social prejudice. When spirited Navy nurse, Nellie Forbush, falls in love with a sophisticated French planter, and a young Marine lieutenant finds himself captivated by an ethereal island girl, their relationships are tested by the prejudices and pressures of a world at war. What unfolds is a deeply moving story about love, courage, and the transformative power of understanding. Featuring a soaring score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, including classics like “Some Enchanted Evening” and “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” South Pacific remains one of the most beloved musicals of all time.
Winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the original Broadway production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto. It is the only musical production ever to have won all four Tony Awards for acting.
“Hawaii is home in the truest sense — not just where I grew up, but the place that shaped how I understand belonging. Playing Bloody Mary has meant something different to me because of that: this is a role born from someone else's imagination of the Pacific, and I've had the chance to bring my own lived connection to that world into it instead. There's a concept in Hawaiian culture, aloha e komo mai — welcome, come in — that speaks to a kind of inclusive belonging I try to carry into every room I'm in, onstage and off. Stepping into this role in 2026 also means stepping into its history: South Pacific premiered in 1949, and revisiting it now is a chance to hold both what the show was reaching for in its moment and what it means to inhabit it with real cultural roots today. This production has felt like a genuine act of reclamation, and I'm grateful to share it with our audiences.”
Shogun’s Mother
Pacific Overtures
Kunoichi Productions & Theatre of Yugen
(L) Ryan Marchand
Afong Moy
The Chinese Lady
The Pear Theatre
(L) Joseph Alvarado
photo: Sinjin Jones
M’Lynn Eatenton
Steel Magnolias
Sierra Repertory Theatre
(L to R) Olivia Jones, Laurie Strawn, Emily Gatesman, Isabella Chang, Eiko Moon-Yamamoto
courtesy photo
Aviragus/ Posthumus’ mother/ Musician
Cymbeline
San francisco Shakespeare Festival
photo: Neal Ormond
Pacifica, the fairy
SLEEPING BEAUTY:Panto
Presidio Theatre
(L to R) Ryan Patrick Welsh, Ruby Day, Eiko Moon-Yamamoto
photo: Terry Lorant
Jack’s mother
Into the woods
Mountain Play
(L to R) Kevin Singer, Eiko Moon-Yamamoto, Chachi Delgado, Luke Hichman, Grace Margaret Craig
Emily Whitman
FOLLIES
San Francisco Playhouse
(L ro R) Cindy Goldfield, Maureen McVerry, Eiko Moon-Yamamoto, Rene Collins
photo: Jessica Palopoli
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