Bio
Best known for her recurring role on the drama Felicity as Leila Foster, a college student who inspired Felicity (Keri Russell) to stage a demonstration at the student health center, Keiko Agena is now a series regular on Gilmore Girls.
Agena was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she lived until she was 17. She made her acting debut at age 10 with a small part in the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and enjoyed the experience so much, she decided to continue performing.
Her parents were very supportive, with her mother taking her to auditions and helping her memorise lines for roles in community theatre productions.
After high school, Agena studied drama at Whitman College in Washington state. She went to Los Angeles during the summer break after her first year and never returned.
Her first professional audition came before she had a chance to take head shots, so her agent improvised and took Polaroids of her. Fate intervened and she wound up getting the role nonetheless, a guest spot on the television series Renegade.
Since then, Agena has guest-starred as the mother of a deaf boy on ER, and a student reporter on Sister, Sister, as well as appearing on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Keiko also played the lead in the feature film Hundred Percent, an independent Asian-American drama featuring the interwoven stories of three couples.
Besides her TV work, Agena belongs to hereandnow, an Asian-American theatre company that performs at colleges and festivals across the country.