Nichole Sakura (formerly credited as Nichole Bloom) is a Japanese-American actress best known for her role as Cheyenne Thompson in the NBCsitcomSuperstore (2015–2021).
Early life
Sakura was born to a Japanese mother and an American father with Irish ancestry.[1] She was raised in San Francisco and usually spent her summers as a child visiting relatives in Japan.[2] She went to Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley and later attended the University of Southern California, from which she graduated after three years as a Theater major.[3] After college Sakura briefly attended classes at The Groundlings Theatre but was cut from the program, which she considered "devastating."[4]
Career
She had the recurring role of Amanda on Shameless from 2014 to 2016.
In 2015, Sakura starred in the music video for one of Phantoms’ two singles, “Broken Halo,” from their EP of the same name.[5] Later that year, she was added to the main cast of the NBC sitcom Superstore as Cheyenne, a 17-year-old store employee who is pregnant at the start of the series.[6] The series followed a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box chain store in St. Louis, Missouri.[7]
Her stage name was originally Nichole Bloom (the last name derived from her Japanese name Sakura, for cherry blossom); she changed it to Nichole Sakura in August 2020,[12] announcing through Instagram that she had changed her name for her acting credits to honor her mother and her Japanese heritage. She stated that she had taken her original stage name out of fear in being typecast into stereotypical Asian roles.[citation needed]
