Hanako Footman was born to a Japanese mother and an English-Irish father[1] and grew up in Wimbledon, South London.
[4] She returned to television in 2017 when she guest-starred as Lily in a season 2 episode of the Netflix historical drama The Crown, titled "A Company of Men".
[citation needed] The following year, Footman appeared in the comedy horror film Slaughterhouse Rulez and starred in the lead role of Pia in the BBC Two sitcom Defending the Guilty; the rest of the series aired in 2019.
[5] Also in 2019, she had film roles as Nicole Mowbray in Gavin Hood's Official Secrets and Ruby in Jason Lei Howden's action-comedy Guns Akimbo.
[7][8] Footman's debut novel Mongrel was longlisted for the 2021 Mo Siewcharran Prize and was published in February 2024 by Footnote Press.