Nagoya, Japan

Naoko Mori is a British actress of Japanese descent.
Her most well recognised roles are Sarah, Saffron's good friend, in Absolutely Fabulous, Mie Nishi-Kawa in Casualty (1993-1994), and Toshiko Sato in Doctor Who (2005) and its spin-off Torchwood (2006). Mori was born in Nagoya, Japan. Her family moved to New Jersey, USA when Mori was four years old, and to Surrey, England eight years later. There, Mori took singing lessons, and at the age of 17 was cast as Kim, the lead role, in the West End p... ... (read more...) roduction of Miss Saigon, opposite John Barrowman. Around the same time, she was cast as Saffron's friend Sarah in Absolutely Fabulous, a role she would continue to play occasionally for over a decade.
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In 1993–1994, Mori had a regular role on the hospital drama Casualty as the hospital receptionist Mie Nishikawa. Film roles followed, including appearances in Spiceworld: The Movie (1997) and Topsy-Turvy (1999), and a leading role in Running Time (2000). Mori also appeared in the television programmes Judge John Deed (2001) and Spooks (2002). Mori had a major role in the 2005 BBC docu-drama Hiroshima, which contained dramatic re-enactments of the 1945 atomic bombing. Mori also provided the voice acting for the villaness Mai Hem for the game Perfect Dark Zero.
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Also in 2005, Mori had a small role as 'Dr Sato' in the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London". Producer Russell T. Davies took note of her performance, and decided to bring the character back as a regular in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, working alongside John Barrowman again.

Mori returned to the West End on November 20, 2006, when she took over the role of Christmas Eve from Ann Harada in the London production of Avenue Q.