We have a great voice cast on “Lunatics!” which is one reason I really,
really want to see this finished. One of the first characters introduced
is “Hiromi Lerner”, voiced by Karrie Shirou.

Hiromi Lerner

The part of Hiromi Lerner is tricky. She’s a subtle character — it’d be
really easy for her to come off as a stereotypical homemaker role and
thus dismissed, but the thing is, she’s somebody who’s decided to do
this role on the Moon. Inside, Hiromi is like iron, and you could argue
that she’s the one that really holds that colony together.

Hiromi Aoki Lerner, wife of Dr. Robert Lerner, is the field doctor and
nutritionist for the International Space Foundation’s Lunar Colony.
Mrs Lerner holds a Masters in Health Science from the University of Toronto’s
Mississauga Academy and a Masters in Space Nutrition from the University of
Texas Online Branch. Only daughter of David Aoki, founder of Aoki Aerospace, Hiromi has been
interested in space travel from her youth.
She has a daughter, Georgiana Lerner age seven.

In the pilot, we begin the subtle characterization of Hiromi,
displaying a sweet demeanor while deftly keeping complete control of
the pre-flight press conference; we see her talking her seven-year-old
daughter through what is potentially a really scary experience for a
child; and never losing her cool.

Of course, this is only the very beginning and we have barely scratched
the surface of this character. We’re going to learn a whole lot more about
Hiromi before season one is over.

Karrie Shirou

We found Karrie Shirou through a
voice-over casting site, and she was a very good cast from the
beginning. As she pointed out to us, she actually is from Torrance, CA
(where the story bible says Hiromi is from), and thus has a completely
authentic accent. She also speaks Japanese pretty fluently, so we can
give her Japanese lines now and then (there’s a pretty long one in the
press-conference scene in the international version of the pilot where
she answers a Japanese reporter about the flight). We had some doubts
about doing that, but we felt that it’s part of showing off the
versatility of that character. Karrie executed that perfectly along with
the rest of her performance — that honestly sounds a little better
every time I listen to it.

Karrie Shirou is a voice actress, performer, cosplayer, and writer based in Los Angeles, California.

Selected Voice-Over work:

• Jaws: Ultimate Predator (VG) – Newscaster (Collision Studios / GTL Media)
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2 (VG) – Female Classmate #3(Arc System Works / PCB Productions)

• DiGi Charat / CD Welcome! Collection, AnimeGamers TV spots, series
  andmovie trailers – Dejiko (Broccoli International / Synch Point)
• K-On! – Azusa’s Friend, Additional Voices (Bandai Entertainment / Bang Zoom Entertainment)
• The Hunter: Iria the Computer Animation – Iria, Lara Croft (PEI / 21st Century Anime)
• Fairy Godmother – Little Girl (Gwen Frey)
• Nescaflowne / Workshop Only – Hitmi (Studio Sokodei)

Selected Performances:

• DiGi Charat Concert Climax Tour / Japan – Dejiko (Broccoli International)
• K-On! / Live Promotional Team at Anime Expo, Sakura-Con, New York
  Anime Fest, J-Pop Summit, Otakon – Yui Hirasawa, Azusa Nakano (Bandai
  Entertainment)
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya / ASOS Brigade – Mikuru Asahina (Bandai Entertainment),
• Hare Hare Yukai dancer (Bandai Entertainment / Minori Chihara)
• Rocky Horror Show – Ensemble, pre-show host (Emergency Exit Productions)