Anzu Lawson

Anzu Lawson is one of country music’s bold new voices-and among the first Eurasian singer-songwriters emerging with something to say. Born in Oregon and raised between Los Angeles and Tokyo, Lawson has spent her life straddling worlds, and her music lives in that in-between space. At 14, she was scouted to model in Tokyo, launching an international career that would soon take an unexpected turn. One summer in Japan, she met YES frontman Jon Anderson backstage at a concert. Recognizing her musical talent, he encouraged her to begin recording. Not long after, Lawson traveled to Nashville to record her first Japanese album with 3x Grammy-winning producer Ross Hogarth. That landed her a #1 single on Avex Records and the Japanese Billboard charts. Though Lawson first became known as an actress with recurring and guest-starring roles on The Blacklist, Chicago Med, NCIS, Law & Order, NCIS, Y&R and more, music has always been the thread running underneath it all. Her acting career began opposite Academy Award-nominated actor Mako in her first screen test as a child. Later, casting director Don Phillips cast her opposite Viggo Mortensen in American Yakuza, launching a career that would lead to roles alongside Al Pacino, Michael Madsen, Christian Slater and many others. In the past, being ethnically ambiguous has allowed Lawson to portray characters of Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Chinese, Native American and Latin heritage. Meanwhile, her unmistakable voice was quietly becoming part of some of Hollywood’s most iconic soundtracks. Lawson has performed on scores by Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe-the haunting vocal heard as Lucy first opens the wardrobe door into Narnia is Anzu Lawson. She can also be heard on the soundtracks for Spy Game, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Illegal Tender and The Da Vinci Code. Her sound has traveled everywhere from J-Pop to rock, hard rock and metal, but during the pandemic Lawson finally found the sound that felt like home. Together with Nashville-based co-writer and co-producer Caleb Hardin, she began creating music that was unmistakably her own: cinematic, raw, soul country-rooted and deeply personal. Now stepping fully into the spotlight as a country artist in America, Lawson writes songs about chasing impossible dreams in cities that can make you feel invisible. Her music explores identity, mixed heritage, heartbreak, ambition, loneliness, family, reinvention and the search for home. Drawing from a life lived between cultures, industries and countries, Lawson brings a voice to country music that is both deeply personal and rarely heard. As an actor, frustrated by the lack of complex roles for ethnic women like her, Lawson also turned to writing. She earned her screenwriting certificate from UCLA, where she optioned her first script, The Seed Between the Stones. She went on to write and perform the acclaimed one-woman shows Dear Yoko and The Rub, as well as the original 28 song musical/feature she penned called Dear John, Why Yoko? which earned her a Best Actress nomination at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, playing Yoko Ono. Her writing has since received widespread recognition, including the 2025 Indie Short Fest Outstanding Achievement Award, finalist honors from the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Big Apple Film Festival and Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards, and semi-finalist recognition from the Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Competition, Screencraft, The Page Turner Screenplay Awards, Tokyo Film & Screenplay awards, New York Film & Cinematography Awards and the Los Angeles Diversity Initiative. Lawson has also performed stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, Laugh Factory, Westside Comedy Theatre and The Improv. Through her production company, Happy Hapa Films, she continues to create edgy, emotionally honest stories centered on women, identity and the outsiders history often leaves behind. But at the center of everything-through the acting, the writing, the comedy and the years spent searching-has always been the music. Honest, cinematic and fearless, Anzu Lawson is carving out a place in country music all her own.