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Having trained all her life in the most rigorous of martial arts, Karai (辛い) is a high-ranking member of the ninja crime syndicate, the Foot Clan. In nearly all the versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in which she appears, she is the adopted daughter of Oroku Saki, also known as the Shredder. There are more than a few timelines in which she takes this mantle over from him, inheriting with it the leadership of the Foot and the position of ultimate enemy to the turtles. In the 2007 movie, however, she does not take on the name of the Shredder, though she is the undisputed leader of the remaining Foot ninja.

Little is known about Karai's past in the 2007 movie, as it is connected to the live action movies from the 1990s in which she does not appear. A sequel was also never made for the '07 universe, with the license holders instead choosing a reboot which eventually became the 2014 movie. Still, it is not too much of stretch to assume that 2007!Karai is, as in other adaptations, close to the then-deceased Shredder. Presumably, she is in her early to mid twenties and has been in control of the Foot since Leonardo was sent to train in the jungles of Central America after the events of The Secret of the Ooze (1993's Turtles in Time aka TMNT III seems to be mostly retconned, and no one lost anything of value). The turtles do not recognize her during their initial confrontation, but she knows them and appears to hold a certain degree of contempt towards them, especially Leo. This animosity does not stop her from becoming their ally later in the film, even when it would be much more advantageous to join the other side. Yet she and the Foot clan have already been hired by someone who leagued with the Turtles, and she refuses to go back on that bargain. This shows that Karai, as in most Turtle 'verses, is a person who values honor and remains cool and collected. In the end, she does not have the nearly insane hatred of the turtles that her father does; very likely, this will make her a much more competent warrior than the Shredder every was. But the ending of the movie, partly due to never being resolved because of rebooting issues, is ambiguous and shows that she still has ultimate loyalties to the Shredder.