Zauner described the music video for the Japanese Breakfast song "Boyish" as her "magnum opus". Zauner has directed most of the music videos for Japanese Breakfast, except for "In Heaven" and "Jane Cum", which were directed by Adam Kolodny, and "Everybody Wants To Love You", which they co-directed. As part of the deal, Zauner is to help adapt the film and supervise the film's soundtrack. On June 7, 2021, Orion Pictures announced they would adapt Crying in H Mart into a feature film. The book debuted at number two on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending April 24, 2021. On April 20, 2021, Zauner released her first book Crying in H Mart: A Memoir (based on the 2018 New Yorker essay) via Alfred A. On February 28, 2019, it was announced that the publishing rights to Zauner's memoir were won at auction by Knopf. On April 1, 2021, an essay by Zauner was published online by Harper's Bazaar entitled "#Forgiveness." The essay detailed Zauner's experiences with her father, whom she became estranged from after the death of her mother.
The essay was similar in subject matter to the 2016 Glamour essay. On August 20, 2018, an essay by Zauner was published in The New Yorker entitled, "Crying in H-Mart". The essay focused on Zauner's experiences with her mother's cancer diagnosis and death, as well as the bond Zauner and her mother shared over Korean food. On July 13, 2016, Zauner won the 11th edition of the Glamour magazine essay contest with her essay, "Real Life: Love, Loss, and Kimchi". In 2020, Zauner collaborated with Ryan Galloway of the band Crying to form Bumper (stylized BUMPER) and released an EP titled pop songs 2020. On June 10, 2021, a cover by Japanese Breakfast of their song "Be Sweet" in the fictional Simlish language was released for the eleventh expansion pack for The Sims 4. In contrast to the previous two Japanese Breakfast albums, Jubilee was described as being about joy. Japanese Breakfast's third studio album, Jubilee, was released by Dead Oceans on June 4, 2021.
Zauner said the song "Better the Mask", written for the game, was has "favorite song ever written as an artist.". The game was to be released in 2019, but was delayed twice and ultimately was released with its soundtrack on September 23, 2021. In 2018, it was revealed during E3 2018 that Japanese Breakfast would provide the soundtrack for the indie video game Sable. On July 14, 2017, Japanese Breakfast released its second studio album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. On June 23, 2016, it was announced Japanese Breakfast had been signed to Dead Oceans. On April 1, 2016, Japanese Breakfast released its first studio album, Psychopomp, under Yellow K Records. While in Oregon with her family, Zauner continued recording as Japanese Breakfast. Zauner performing on The Boaty Weekender in 2019 She waited tables while trying to get her music career off the ground. At Bryn Mawr, Zauner fronted Post Post, an indie pop band with other students from Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. Music career 2005–2011: Early projects Īround 2005, Zauner first played under the moniker Little Girl, Big Spoon. Zauner attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she studied creative writing. Her parents moved there when Zauner was nine months old.
Her mother was Korean and her father is Jewish-American. Michelle Chongmi Zauner was born on March 29, 1989, in Seoul, South Korea to Chongmi and Joel Zauner.