She has been cosplaying and modeling since 2008, having served as the official cosplayer for Bandai Namco (Tekken 7 series), as an actress in the Dorama Kin no Tono (金の殿) and having formed her own J-Pop group called Samurai Tiger - Samurai Apartment Love's Yuriko Tiger (in collaboration with "Samurai Apartment").
Early life
Yuriko was born in Savona, Italy, and grew up in Imperia. Her father runs a bakery in Imperia and her mother is an ex model.
As a child, she often watched anime, that inspired her interest in cosplaying. Yuriko attended different schools, that she was forced to drop due to cyber bullying and bullying. Attending the "Accademia delle Arti", Imperia, she started working in her father's bakery in order to save money and move to Japan. She has been one of the first students of "Manga Summer School", from 2005 to 2008, and she also studied as a make-up artist.[1]
"Everything is possible, but believing is not enough. Planning and giving all you have is the secret. Most of all, never give up!"
Career
Yuriko has been cosplaying since 2008;[2] the first character was Suzumiya Haruhi, from the eponymous light novels series. After a three months experience in Japan, she moved to Tokyo in 2013. Her first experience as a model was on the magazine Playboy Japan, her first and last work as a Gravure Model. Her first television experience was on Why Did You Come to Japan? in which reporters interview people just arrived in Japan at Narita Airport. After a brief interview they decided to follow her around, eventually producing a 25-minute segment that showed her apartment, a trip to a maid cafe, and her work at the World Cosplay Summit.[3] On that day, "Yuriko Tiger" was the most searched word on Yahoo! Japan.
Afterwards, she worked as a model for Toyota (2014), Lawson and Sugoi Japan (2015) and she appeared in numerous tv programs as a guest of honor, such as Baking, Nobunaga, Nyantere, Akazukichan and as a semi-regular guest and cosplayer on Tokoro-san Nippon No Deban (2015).
Her career as an Idol was short, from 2014 to 2015, during which she released her hit single Yuri Yuri Kakumei, which can be found in each DAM Karaoke and iTunes Store Japan. At first her dream was to become an Idol but then her agency decided to promote her as a Talent instead, due to her strong personality. Because of that, Yuriko has undergone a change of style at the beginning of 2016.
Later in 2016 Yuriko took a break from her job in Tokyo and spent 4 months in Italy, working in numerous convention as a guest and host.
From summer 2016 she went back to Tokyo, working as one of the official cosplayer of Harley Quinn for the promotion of Suicide Squad on the red carpet, starting her own Radio Program called Cool Japan, hosting numerous events for the promotion of Tekken 7 all around Japan, modeling for the publicity of the famous theme park J-World (Bandai Namco) and hosting lives on her Nico Nico Douga Channel sponsored by Kadogawa Games.
In 2017, she took part in the promotion of Justice League as Wonder Woman on the red carpet and resumed singing by releasing the single "Haruka" in collaboration with Samurai Apartment as "Samurai Tiger (Samurai Apartment Love’s Yuriko Tiger)".
She also worked as a model for Swallowtail, a company of wigs and colored contact lenses, and was also the first cosplayer to act in a drama (TV show) called "Prison Hotel" that aired on BS Japan.
In 2018, she moved from private agency Dream Networks to Twin Planet. She opened a second Twitter account and an Instagram account both called @psykhere in which she shows her punk side that for several years she had to keep hidden for work needs. She has thus started working as an alternative model for clothing brands, and also carries on her passion for music, expressing on more than one occasion the desire to create a rock band of her own.
As for the cosplay, she became the official cosplayer of FLCL for the launch of the second season of the anime. On that occasion she played the protagonist Haruko.
In 2019 Yuriko Tiger was chosen as the cover girl of the first issue of "Layers Life", a new magazine dedicated to cosplayers, and opened a second Youtube channel in Japanese language where she talks about her life, cosplay and the differences between Italy and Japan.
In 2020, due to the Covid-19, almost all events in which she was expected to participate were cancelled. Despite the difficulties, Yuriko was able to fulfill one of her dreams by playing Motoko Kusanagi for the promotion of the new series Ghost in The Shell SAC_2045 (available on Netflix) and acted as a Tinder model for the new Tinder Japan advertising campaign along with the famous model Kiko Mizuhara. Also, after 7 years, she was contacted again by the television program "Why Did You Come to Japan?" to show how her life has changed.
Private life
For a long time Yuriko had contracts that prevented her from having public relations, after the change of agency she had the opportunity to share with her fans her long-distance relationship, lasting about a year, with a Japanese-Canadian photographer.
In 2020, she came out as bisexual through various stories on Instagram, supported by her agency. To answer the question "How did you know?" made by a fan, she published an excerpt of the anime Ranma ½ saying "Looking at Ranma there were those who liked female Ranma and those who liked male Ranma. I liked them both."
Yuriko Tiger love animals but for a long time she could not have pets due to strict Japanese laws. In 2020, she finally adopted a Scottish Fold named Amore.
In her spare time, Yuriko likes to draw, play video games (although she calls herself "a sucker"), and watch her favorite anime "Nana" by Ai Yazawa.
