Destiny's Child

B&B's Naomi Matsuda Always Knew She Was Meant To Do A Soap

- Tom Stacy

Naomi Matsuda was born to be an entertainer. When she was five years old, her mother moved the aspiring star and her brother from her native Japan to San Diego, and Matsuda’s life would never be the same. “That was an incredible journey and I’m so privileged to have this life I’m living now, thanks to my mother,” relays the actress. “Life as a girl there is very different than life as a girl here in America, so that was the beginning. It was such a wonderful opportunity for myself and my mother and my brother to have a different life.”

Matsuda didn’t know how to speak English, but the family soon found a valuable resource. “I started kindergarten and I was a year late, and I had to learn English, so every day when I came home from school, I watched soap operas,” she recalls. “I saw Susan Lucci [ex-Erica, ALL MY CHILDREN] every day. The soap operas helped me speak English.”

Matsuda hadn’t realized it yet, but she had inherited the family entertainment bug, engaging in dancing and childhood skits. “My grandmother on my father’s side performed traditional Japanese dance, with the wig and the white makeup and the beautiful kimonos, into her 80s,” she shares. “When I was 19, she was still performing in Kyoto. I believe I take after her. She was the powerhouse of the grandparents.”