Nina Sugii

Nina is a Japanese Canadian born in Vancouver, Canada. Her family originated in Kyushu, Japan. She speaks fluent Japanese and English. Nina started learning Taekwondo at the age of 13. Before then, she had learned from martial arts books from Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do and Karate. She has now 30 years of martial arts experience, ranging from Taekwondo, Wing Tsun Kung Fu, Dual Yang Tai Chi Chuan, Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu, and other forms of Aikijujitsu, Iaijutsu (Battojutsu) and Kenjutsu, such as from Kuroda Tetsuzan and Shidare Yanagi Ryu. She holds 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo and 2nd Dan in Bujinkan. From her martial arts experience, she has opened up new opportunities to become a fight choreographer/stunt performer in films as well as acting. Since at an early age, she has been a big fan of old comedies from Hollywood movies to HK and Japanese action movies from the 70s to 90s. The action movies inspired her to become a fight choreographer. Her inspiration is Sanada Hiroyuki, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, and Audrey Hepburn. Nina's first background performance was on a TV series called "Murder in a Small Town," which was filmed in Sunshine Coast, BC, as one of the town folks and a party guest. The next series was "Kanji" (aka Invasion) as a Japanese passerby and the movie "The Smashing Machine," with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as a hotel guest and fan. Not only is she trained in the martial arts, but she is also trained in Shiatsu therapy, where she learned meridian, acupuncture points, and as well as other forms of bodywork. When she is not doing film work, she works as a Shiatsu therapist and body worker on the Sunshine Coast, BC. She has done this for over 10 years.