As Chieko, the angry, sexually exploring, deaf-mute in director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s revelatory motion picture, “Babel” (2006), Rinko Kikuchi wowed critics with her Golden Globe nominated-turn in what, moviegoers were surprised learn, was her first American film.

Kikuchi was born on Jan. 6th, 1981 in Kanagawa, Japan. She started her modeling and acting career at the age of 15 under her real name, Yuriko Kikuchi, before years later, in May of 2004, changing her screen name to Rinko. After making her film debut in "Ikitai" in 1999, she went on to add more than a dozen movies and TV