Michelle Zauner

Michelle Chongmi Zauner (born March 29, 1989) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author, known as the lead vocalist of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast. Her 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, spent 60 weeks on The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list. In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the category Innovators on their annual list. Zauner has performed music since her youth and was a member of the Philadelphia-based emo band Little Big League, with whom she released two albums, These Are Good People (2013) and Tropical Jinx (2014). In 2013, Zauner began to release music under the name Japanese Breakfast, and has released four studio albums to date: Psychopomp in 2016, Soft Sounds from Another Planet in 2017, Jubilee in 2021, and For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) in 2025. Also as Japanese Breakfast, Zauner wrote the soundtrack for the 2021 video game Sable. Zauner's essays have been published in Glamour, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar.