Karyn Kusama

Kusama in 2009, photo by Joe Seer/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Karyn Kiyoko Kusama

Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

Date of Birth: March 21, 1968

Ethnicity:
*father – Japanese
*mother – German, as well as Irish, English, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, remote Welsh, Dutch, and Swiss-German

Karyn Kusama is an American film and television director. She has directed the films Girlfight, which she also wrote, Æon Flux, Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation (2015), a segment of XX; and Destroyer (2018). She has also directed episodes of the shows Halt and Catch Fire, The Man in the High Castle, Casual, Billions, and Yellowjackets.

She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Susan and Haruo Kusama. Her father is Japanese. Her mother is American, and has German, as well as Irish, English, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, and remote Welsh, Dutch, and Swiss-German, ancestry. She is married to screenwriter Phil Hay, with whom she has one child. Phil co-wrote her films Æon Flux, The Invitation, and Destroyer.

Karyn’s maternal grandfather was William Alfred McGuire (the son of William Crawford McGuire and Ethel Rosie Hall). Karyn’s grandfather William was born in Illinois. Karyn’s great-grandfather William was the son of Andrew Jackson McGuire and Ella B. Crawford. Ethel was the daughter of James Hall.

Karyn’s maternal grandmother was Charlotte Hursh (the daughter of Harry Cole “Happy” Hursh and Ruth Marie Faith). Charlotte was born in Hudson, Iowa, and was of mostly German descent. Harry was the son of Daniel Webster Hursh and Lovina Jane Getter, whose father was an ethnic German, from Rothbach, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, Elsaß-Lothringen. Ruth was the daughter of Charles Harmon Faith, whose father was from Alsace-Lorraine, and of Henrietta May Boughn.

Sources: https://www.buzzfeed.com

Obituary of Karyn’s maternal grandmother, Charlotte (Hursh) McGuire – https://www.newspapers.com