Name: Midori Francis
Age: 28
Hometown: Rumson, N.J.
Now Lives: In a two-bedroom apartment on the West Side of Los Angeles, which she moved into last summer.
Claim to Fame: Ms. Francis is a queer Asian American actress who starred in “The Sex Lives of College Girls” on HBO and “Dash & Lily,” a young adult series on Netflix. Being vocal about representation has not dimmed her career. Next month, she’ll join the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” for its 19th season on ABC, where she plays Mika, one of Grey-Sloan Memorial’s newest residents. “Network TV is a whole other beast,” she said. “Millions of people will be watching.”
Big Break: After graduating from Rutgers University in 2014, Ms. Francis pursued theater acting, earning Obie and Drama Desk nods in Off Broadway productions of “The Wolves” and “Usual Girls.” She then started landing guest roles in major films and TV shows.
In 2019, she was offered her first lead role, opposite Austin Abrams, in “Dash & Lily.” The acclaimed series was canceled after one season, but Ms. Francis was cast in “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” where she plays Alicia, a queer activist on campus. Her character has resonated with the show’s L.G.B.T.Q. viewers. “I’ve received some really beautiful messages from young people about feeling seen and represented,” she said.
Latest Project: Earlier this year, Ms. Francis got word from her agent that “Grey’s Anatomy” was casting its next class of interns. A longtime fan of the show (she rarely missed an episode during middle school), she immediately asked to audition. “When you’ve seen these people on TV for so long, you think of them as their characters. “So when Meredith Grey is showing you the O.R., it has a certain weight. You fall in line.”
Next Thing: In addition to Season 2 of “Sex Lives,” she is starring in her first feature film, “Unseen,” a thriller set to be released next year, in which she plays a visually impaired woman trying to escape her murderous ex-boyfriend in the woods. She relished doing many of her own stunts. “I was jumping in freezing water, climbing through the mud, literally scaling walls, and I loved it,” she said. “I could not have been more in my element.”
Being Seen: As one of the few queer Asian actresses on network TV, Ms. Francis knows how much her presence matters. “I cannot represent everyone, of course,” she said. “I can only hope and fight to play fully fleshed-out characters who are just as messy, joyful, hurt, silly and complex as all human beings actually are.”
