13 Facts About Karen Iwata

Karen Iwata's mother is Miwa Sugawara, who works as a TV personality in Sendai.

Karen Iwata has made appearances in commercials as early as 6 months of age.

Karen Iwata auditioned for AKB48, but the Tohoku earthquake struck just before the final screening and she was affected by the disaster, so she considered withdrawing from the audition.

However, the auditions were postponed, so Karen Iwata continued to participate and was selected to join the group as a 12th kenkyusei in April 2011.

In December 2011, Karen Iwata auditioned for a role in the TV animated series AKB0048 and was selected to play the main character, Nagisa Motomiya.

In March 2012, during the Saitama Super Arena concert, Karen Iwata was one of the trainee members who were promoted to full AKB48 members in the new Team 4.

In July 2012, Karen Iwata was selected to host a TV program on NHK as part of a series to support the areas affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which included Sendai.

Karen Iwata mentioned that she had lived in a shelter for a while before auditioning for AKB48.

On January 5,2016, Karen Iwata announced she would be leaving the group.

Karen Iwata has appeared in numerous stage productions, musicals, films and TV dramas, as well as appearing in concerts organised by Horipro, performing songs and dances from her AKB48 days.

Karen Iwata played the role of Delphi Diggory in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Tokyo from June 2022 to May 2023.

Karen Iwata appeared as the lead actress in The Last Passenger, a film about the Tohoku earthquake, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival.

Karen Iwata attended the Faculty of Arts at Nihon University and graduated from Department of Photography in March 2023.