is a Japanese

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. He is known for his affinity for strange character roles, and he is best known internationally for playing L in the 2006 films ''

Death Note ''Death Note'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to ...

'', '' Death Note 2: The Last Name'' and '' L: Change the World'' in 2008. He was cast to play lead character Toru Watanabe in the film adaptation of

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for hi ...

's novel '' Norwegian Wood'', which was released in December 2010. His stage name uses the

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

spelling of his first name (ケンイチ) instead of the usual

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

(研一). He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School.

Career

He debuted as a model in 2001 for PARCO. He made his acting debut in the television series ''

Gokusen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by . It was serialized in Shueisha's ''You'' from 2000 to 2007, with its chapters collected in 15 volumes. The story follows Kumiko Yamaguchi, the granddaughter of a yakuza boss and tea ...

'' in 2002 and made his first film appearance in '' Bright Future'' in 2003. He starred in the film ''Winning Pass'' a year later. Matsuyama starred in ''Ultra Miracle Love Story'' in 2009, using the

Tsugaru dialect The is a Japanese dialect spoken in western Aomori Prefecture. The Tsugaru dialect is reputed to be so divergent from standard Japanese for those who are not native speakers, that even people living in the same prefecture may have trouble unde ...

of Japanese in the film. He voiced the role of Balthazar Bratt in the Japanese dub of ''

Despicable Me 3 ''Despicable Me 3'' is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, and distributed by Universal. It is the sequel to '' Despicable Me 2'' (2013), the third main installment, and the fourth overall ent ...

'' in 2017. He was in the stage play ''Seven Souls in the Skull Castle'' the same year. He played a police detective in the 2023 drama '' Why Didn't I Tell You a Million Times?''

Personal life

On April 1, 2011, he married Koyuki Katō, who co-starred with him in '' Kamui Gaiden''. The couple's first child was born in January 2012, and their second child was born in January 2013 in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. In July 2015, the couple had their third child. He speaks in the Shimokita dialect.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Horipro agency profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuyama, Kenichi 1985 births Living people People from Mutsu, Aomori Japanese male film actors Japanese male television actors Japanese male voice actors Actors from Aomori Prefecture Taiga drama lead actors 21st-century Japanese male actors