Hattori Mako was born in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 1961 and grew up with her single mother. She began working as a fifteen-year-old to help her mother who was making money as a hostess, but never enough. She began taking dance lessons and was introduced through her instructor to the world of modelling. Her debut was in 1978 as a campaign girl for Kanebo cosmetics. Then came various TV appearances and a cooking show. She retired from working in Japan and moved to the USA in 1982. She resided in New York between 1984 and 1994. She is proficient in English and could even be a translator as a result having lived and studied in the USA. She played a translator on a mock episode of David Letterman on US TV in 1985. She also speaks Spanish. She married in 1987 to Edward Valentine and gave birth to a daughter called Emma in 1991. She began working in Japan again in the '90s and began a variety show on a local Sendai TV in the 2000s. She is proficient in Japanese traditional dance and has both performed on stage and taught it using the pseudonym Shoko Yamamura at her Tokyo Studio. Moreover, she does modern dance, plays the shamisen and sings Japanese traditional songs. She lives in Japan, but maintains a house in Los Angeles. Show less «