NEW YORK (AP) — Rei Ami, whose voice helped gas the hit film “KPop Demon Hunters,” not too long ago discovered herself dealing with loads of actual hunters — watching from the ocean ground as about 16 reef sharks went on a feeding frenzy.
She was scared, certain. But greater than that, she was dropped at tears.
“I thought I’d be a bit more petrified, but I was enamored. I was in awe. It was witnessing nature,” she says. “You can’t put it into words the emotions and the feelings that you experience.”
Viewers can watch Rei Ami’s expertise with sharks whereas off the Korean Peninsula when Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” kicks off Sunday.
Twenty new, hourlong shows leap deep into the world of the traditional predators, from a record-setting dive try into shark-infested waters to looking for out what triggers large bull sharks to confront people.
“Growing up, I always watched ‘Shark Week,’” says Rei Ami. “You see those epic commercials, with the great white jumping out and eating the chum and the tuna. That’s ingrained in my brain forever.”
Actor-comedian Ken Jeong joins her to start out the week off with the present “K-Pop Shark Heroes” on Sunday. But whereas she went on two cage dives and two free dives with hammerheads and reef sharks and bull sharks, he most well-liked to remain out of the water.
“I’m more of the Christopher Nolan of the shark ‘Odyssey’ — just overseeing it,” Jeong jokes. “Just overlooking everything. High and dry. That’s when I do my best work.”
It’s a shark-a-thon
The seven nights of recent exhibits ends Aug. 1 with a take a look at how nice whites are shifting additional up the East Coast and an examination of how thresher sharks use their tails to stun and kill prey.
One spotlight is watching excessive diver Molly Carlson leap 50 toes (15 meters) from a helicopter right into a Plexiglas cage within the ocean surrounded by circling reef sharks. She’s OK with leaping from huge heights, however sharks terrify her.
“There was zero chances of me ever swimming with sharks. This was just not on my radar,” she says. “That’s always been my thing, and so for me to be invited to be on ‘Shark Week,’ I was like ‘Why me?’”
Viewers will see Carlson, who has been frank about her struggles with anxiousness, overcome her lifelong worry of sharks. Carlson hopes she will be able to encourage others.
“If I can inspire that next 16-year-old girl who wants to just hide in her room and never come out because she’s scared of so many things, then I’m absolutely going to find a way to do this,” she says. “You’re allowed to be scared and do it anyways. And so I think that was the big purpose behind this project for me.”
This yr’s highlights additionally embrace an try and find a rumored 15-foot (4-meter) mako off the coast of Southern California, which might make it the most important ever documented.
Marine biologist Kendyl Berna, a “Shark Week” veteran who co-founded the ecology group Beyond the Reef, says her staff of scientists have been betting on the truth that a marine warmth wave has made mako prey in these waters ample, permitting the sharks to get greater.
“Sharks are the cockroaches of the sea because they’ve been around for 450 million years. They’re older than dinosaurs, they’re older than trees. Sharks have just been around, but the form that they’re taking constantly changes,” she says.
‘Shark Week’ is enjoyable but additionally instructional
“Shark Week” has turn out to be a key a part of the summer time vacation TV schedule, a spot the place people secure on land can see historic apex predators unnervingly glide into view and snap open their jaws, fueling nightmares.
As at all times, there’s a deep respect for the creatures and sturdy science beneath the amusing titles, sharky puns, dramatic music and racy titles like “Chum Island: Catching a Killer” and “Sharkzilla Takes New York.”
“While ‘Shark Week’ is very entertaining and thrilling, it is at the core very educational. And I think there’s still so much misinformation regarding sharks and how they behave,” says Rei Ami.
“Through these episodes, people can understand, there’s really no reason to fear them, you know? And I hope that message gets received.”
Discovery’s “Shark Week” has a rival — National Geographic’s “SharkFest,” which additionally has hours of sharky content material. And there’s Amazon Studios’ new film “The Devil’s Mouth,” which has bull sharks terrorizing faculty college students in a flooded cave system.
“Shark Week” additionally has sensible recommendation about what to do when you end up face-to-snout with a shark, a rising concern from Korea to Brooklyn as interactions improve. The recommendation is obvious: Stop splashing.
“It’s even more imperative that humans know how to act and react in a situation when they are in the waters and they see a shark,” says Rei Ami. “It would really, I think, help the public to understand how these apex predators work and behave.”
___
This story has been up to date to delete an incorrect reference to a K-pop track within the present being sung by Rei Ami.
___
This story was first revealed on July 22, 2026. It was up to date on July 23, 2026, to repair a misspelled title within the correction observe on the backside of the story. It is Rei Ami, not Rei Amy.
