Mandy Sekiguchi (関口メンディー; ''Sekiguchi Mendi'', born January 25, 1991, in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

) is an American-Japanese dancer, rapper, actor and a member of

J-Pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the ...

groups

Generations from Exile Tribe Generations from Exile Tribe (Japanese: ジェネレーションズ・フロム・エグザイル・トライブ, stylized as GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE and formerly known as Generations) is a seven-member Japanese dance and vocal group formed ...

, Exile and

Honest Boyz Honest Boyz (stylized in all caps)also HONEST BOYZ®, is a 5-member hip hop group consisting of four MC's and one Disc jockey, DJ: Naoto (dancer), Naoto (Exile (Japanese band), Exile member & Sandaime J Soul Brothers leader), Verbal (rapper), Ver ...

. Sekiguchi is represented with LDH. His mother is Japanese and his father is

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

Early life

Mandy Sekiguchi was born on January 25, 1991, in

and grew up in

Shinagawa is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies. , the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population density of 16,510 persons per km2. The total are ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Even though he was born outside of Japan, he was raised monolingual in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and only started to study

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

later on in his career. He started playing baseball at the age of 6 and practiced it till his third year in high school.

Career

In April 2011, Mandy participated in the Exile Professional Gym (EXPG) audition produced by Hiro, and he was selected as a member of

. In April 2012, he became an official member of Generations and debuted in November of the same year. Mandy advanced into acting for the first time in April 2014, when he was selected as a cast member of Fuji TV's late night program ''Wow''. On April 27, 2014, Mandy passed the Exile Performer Battle Audition Final in Nippon Budoukan and became a member of Exile. In May of the same year, he made his stage debut in the stage play Dance Earth Project ''"Changes"'' while also joining the coed-group

Dance Earth Party Dance Earth Party (Japanese: ダンス・アース・パーティー, also stylized as DANCE EARTH PARTY or known by their acronym DEP) is a Japanese Dance-pop coed group created and managed by LDH since 2013. They are a dance-vocal unit which is ...

for one year. On January 26, 2015, members of Sekiguchi MANDY and GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE were appointed as "Hong Kong Tourism Goodwill Ambassadors" by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. On 15 April 2016, he became a member of the hip-hop unit

. He took on the position of MC in the group, calling himself simply Mandy (stylized as MANDY). This marked the first time he would use his vocals in a group. In August 2017, Mandy produced the 24karats×KANGOL collaboration collection of designer hats. 24karats is a fashion brand developed by LDH while

KANGOL Kangol is a British clothing company famous for its headwear. The name Kangol reflects the original materials for production, the K coming from the word 'silK' (a recent attribution to 'Knitting' is incorrect), the ANG from 'ANGora', and the ...

was founded in 1938 as a British traditional beret brand which established itself as a symbol of the art scene. Additionally, he made his acting debut in LDH's movie universe ''HiGH & LOW'' in the same year. On June 5, 2018, he threw the first pitch at the opening ceremony of the Giants vs Rakuten baseball game, held at Tokyo Dome. His appearance garnered great public attention since the speed of his pitch reached 133 km/h, the fastest thrown by an entertainer at that time. His record was broken by

Golden Bomber is a Japanese visual kei "air" rock band formed in 2004 and signed to the independent label Euclid Agency (sublabel ''Zany Zap''). Despite not actually performing the instruments themselves during concerts, they have gained popularity through ...

's Kenji Darvish later on (135 km/h) and both developed a comedic rivalry. On August 31,

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and produces products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories which are sold ...

announced they would produce a new character, ''Hello Mandy'', based on Mandy Sekiguchi. The character is designed with an "M" lavaliere on a necklace and one of Mandy's most familiar hairstyles. In January 2019, Mandy was chosen as a representative for the promotion of the American movie ''Aquaman'' in Japan. On February 14, he attended the ''PRINCE OF LEGEND PREMIUM LIVE SHOW'', a fan-meeting with the whole ''Prince of Legend'' cast, at

Yokohama Arena is an indoor arena located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The capacity of the arena is 17,000 and was opened in 1989. The arena was modeled after US sports venue Madison Square Garden in New York City. It is a five-minute walk from the ...

. On March 18, Mandy was invited to throw another first pitch at the opening ceremony of the Giants vs Mariners baseball game at Tokyo Dome. However, he wasn't able to exceed his previous record. On June 4, it was announced that ''Hello Mandy'' won the No. 1 prize in the collaboration category of the Sanrio Character Award, an award based on an annual popularity voting. On July 17,

released the single "Brand New Story". It included "Control Myself" as a B-side track, being the group's first original English song and also the first one to feature Mandy as a rapper. On September 9, it was announced that Mandy would be part of the cast for the live-action series of the manga ''Motokare Mania (モトカレマニア; Ex-Boyfriend Mania).'' This would be the first time that he will appear in a prime time drama.

Participating groups

Filmography

TV programmes

Stage

TV dramas

Web Dramas

Movies

Live

Game

Music videos

Work

Character

* "Hello Mandy"(December, 2018;

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sekiguchi, Mandy Japanese male dancers Japanese dancers Entertainers from New Jersey Japanese people of American descent Japanese people of Nigerian descent 1991 births Living people LDH (company) artists