Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 121
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Tamlyn Tomita was born on 27 January 1966 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress and writer, known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Eye (2008). She is married to Daniel Blinkoff.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Sasheer Zamata is a comedian, actress and writer. She was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and This American Life. She serves as ACLU's Celebrity Ambassador for Women's Rights. She hosts a live variety show called Sasheer Zamata Party Time, and you can watch her standup special Pizza Mind on Amazon Prime and Starz, and listen to it on iTunes and Spotify.
She's been listed in Time Out New York's Top 10 Funniest Women in NYC, Brooklyn Magazine's 50 Funniest People in Brooklyn, and Complex Magazine's Women in Comedy You Should Be Paying Attention to Right Now.
She co-created and co-starred in the webseries Pursuit of Sexiness, which was named one of the Top 10 Web Series of 2013 by Variety, and part of Glamour's 7 Web Series We Can't Stop Watching in 2015.
She's performed at Clusterfest, Just for Laughs (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver), Bonnaroo, SXSW, Moontower Comedy Festival, Outside Lands, SF Sketchfest, Vodafone Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, New York Comedy Festival, Brooklyn Comedy Festival, Limestone Comedy Festival, Woodstock Comedy Festival, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, Great American Comedy Festival, and Women in Comedy Festival.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Brian Tee will star opposite Nicole Kidman in the prestige limited series "Expats," as "Clarke Woo" husband to "Margaret" (Kidman), directed by the acclaimed Lulu Wang for Amazon Prime. Tee also stared as Dr. Ethan Choi, on NBC's hit drama "Chicago Med," produced by Dick Wolf and won a 2020 NAMIC Vision Award (Best Performance - Drama) for his work on "Chicago Med."
On the big screen Tee has shared his talents in many giant blockbuster movies. Tee is known around the world for his starring role as "D.K. The Drift King," in Universal's franchise "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," directed by Justin Lin. He was a lead in FOX's summer hit "The Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman and Directed by James Mangold. He played "Hamada," the head of park security in Universal Pictures' and Amblin Entertainment's box office smash "Jurassic World." And continuing his tent-pole career, Tee starred in Paramount Pictures' and Michael Bay's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2," as the iconic villain "Shredder."
As a character leading man, Tee romanced audiences as the lead opposite Anne Heche in the Hallmark movie "One Christmas Eve." He starred in the series "Mortal Kombat: Legacy 2," as "Liu Kang," produced by Warner Brothers, took on a lead role in Lifetime's "The Gabby Douglas Story" as the inspirational Coach "Liang Chow," and also gave a standout comedic performance in Justin Lin's comedy, "Finishing the Game," as the insanely hilarious Vietnam Vet, "Mac Chang."
A talent in all genres, Tee gave an unforgettable, heart wrenching performance as "Jimmy Nakayama," in the action drama "We Were Soldiers," opposite Mel Gibson. And on the comedy side, Brian has featured in big budget comedies "Austin Powers: Goldmember," alongside Mike Myers and "Fun with Dick and Jane," with comedy great Jim Carrey.
On the small screen, Tee was a series regular playing "EMT Eddie Choi," in "Crash," a STARZ TV series based on the Academy Award winning film. He recurred on the hit NBC series "Grimm," CBS's "Hawaii 5-O," and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Tee has made memorable guest star appearances on shows such as "Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Lucifer, ZOO, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Lottery, Legends, Beauty and the Beast, Burn Notice, The Good Guys, CSI, Dark Blue, Bones, Lie To Me, Jericho, Entourage, The Unit, Wanted, Without A Trace, JAG, Family Law, The Pretender, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer," among others.
As the consummate artist, Tee continued to stretch his range Internationally. He starred in the Korean American romantic comedy indie feature "Wedding Palace," and was the lead villain in Korea's highly anticipated action film "No Tears for the Dead," opposite, Jang, Dong-Gun and Kim, Min-Hee, Directed by the acclaimed Lee, Jeong-Beom ("The Man from Nowhere.")
In love with his craft, Tee never stops honing his talents and embraces all mediums. Brian returned to the stage to rave reviews for his lead performance in "Snow Falling on Cedars" at the prestigious Hartford Stage.
A Los Angeles native and mixture of multiple Asian descents, Tee is proficient in both Japanese and Korean, and holds a bachelor's degree in Dramatic Arts - Acting from the University of California, Berkeley. His muse is his Family, his amazing wife Mirelly Taylor and magical daughter Madelyn Skyler who are his life's love and inspiration.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nikaido Fumi has been active in the movie industry a dozen years and already has as many nominations and wins to her name. She was born in American outpost Okinawa in 1994 and first appeared on screen in 2009. She had won an award celebrating young actresses for the film Himizu at the Venice Film Festival by 2011. She was also newcomer of the year at the 36th Japan Academy in the same year. Nikaido was scouted by Sony Music Artists at age twelve after her photograph appeared in the Okinawan edition of Picture Book Of Beautiful Girls, which is a free publication that features local amateurs as models. Coincidentally, she had dreamt of being an actress. This afforded her the opportunity to pitch products in advertisements as early as 2007. She also took advantage of her physique to do modelling for Nicola magazine. She commuted between Okinawa and Tokyo for work until moving to Tokyo for high school. More recently she has expressed a dislike for acting in serials and stated that she wants to act in movies only. Nikaido enrolled in Keio university of Tokyo, where she resides, and studied management and English. Her father is a Tokyo native cook and her mother is an Okinawan who took her to the cinema often. Her favourite foods are turnip and steak. No word on whether she likes them together or if she prefers to consume these separately.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Merle Dandridge was born in Japan to a Korean mother and African American father, then raised in Nebraska and schooled in Chicago at Roosevelt University. Dandridge has made an indelible mark on both stage and screen. Most recently, she reprised her role of Marlene, leader of the fireflies in the HBO adaptation of "The Last of Us", based on Naughty Dog's video game of the same name. She can also currently be seen as Chief Ross in ABC's "Station 19," and as Zarina Killebrew in Apple TV+'s "Truth Be Told". Merle starred as Grace Greenleaf in Oprah Winfrey's hit series "Greenleaf" which ran for five seasons. Other television includes HBO's "The Flight Attendant", FX's "Sons of Anarchy," CW's "Starcrossed," and NBC's "The Night Shift."
In the video game space, she is known for Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us" and "The Last of Us Part II" as Marlene, the leader of Fireflies, Evelyn and the Nun in "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End," Legion Commander and Winter Wyvern in "Dota 2," Alyx Vance in "Half-Life 2," and Katherine Collins in "Everybody's Gone To The Rapture" for which she won the 2016 BAFTA for "Best Performer."
Dandridge began her acting career with leading roles on Broadway in Spamalot (Lady of the Lake), Rent (Joanne), Aida (Aida), Tarzan (Kala) and Jesus Christ Superstar. More recently, Merle took on the role of Pharaoh in The Lincoln Center presentation of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She was also the first woman to play the role of Papa Ge in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Ahrens and Flaherty's Once on This Island, which received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. She has toured the U.S. and Europe six times and has been featured in several regional theatre productions, including multiple stints at The Geffen and the Tony-winning Pasadena Playhouse. Most recently, Dandridge returned to the latter in her critically acclaimed and award-winning turn as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music and followed that up with her L.A. Opera debut opposite Renee Fleming in the Stoppard/Previn two-hander, Penelope, featuring The Emerson String Quartet and Simone Dinnerstein. She has also performed at The Hollywood Bowl, Boston Pops, and at Royal Albert Hall.
Merle serves on the Board of Directors of The Geffen Playhouse and Harvest Home, which provides housing and holistic support to unhoused pregnant women.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Born on July 11, 1971 in Okinawa, Japan, she is an American actress and musician, best known for the role of Alice Pieszecki in The L Word (2004) and for being one half of the electropop duo Uh Huh Her. She was born to American parents in the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands and grew up in Bellevue, Nebraska. At 17 she moved to New York City, where she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1991 she and her classmate Heather Grody started a pop group they called the Murmurs, and which was later renamed Gush. In 1996 she debuted in TV in an episode of Boy Meets World (1993) and a year later she got her first major role in All Over Me (1997). In 2004 she got the role of Alice Pieszecki in The L Word (2004), which became her most recognizable role and which she played till the show's end in 2009. In 2007 Hailey and Camila Grey started an electropop duo Uh Huh Her and the following year the band released its first album, "Common Reaction". In 2019 she returned to the role of Alice in The L Word: Generation Q (2019).- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born on a military base in Okinawa and raised in San Diego, Elizabeth Frances is a talented, multi-ethnic actress best known for her on-camera roles such as Angela Maryboy in Drunktown's Finest, produced by Robert Redford which premiered at Sundance Film Festival; Bad Penny in the Emmy®-nominated series Her Story; Lilly Rowan on Netflix's Love from producer Judd Apatow; NBC's Heartbeat; FX's Mayans M.C.; and Prairie Flower on AMC's hit series The Son starring Pierce Brosnan.
She received a BFA from Cal Arts, and started her professional career working with such notable theaters as Center Theater Group, La Jolla Playhouse, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Marin Theater Company, Native Voices, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre.- Actor
- Additional Crew
James Jordan was born in Japan, but raised in England. He is a very versatile London-based North American voice over artist with gravitas and brio, with a range from New York Mobster, California cool to Texas cowboy. He is also a highly successful narrator of many documentaries for the History and Discovery Channel. His work includes "The Bader Meinhoff Gang" and "The Flying Guru". Jordan is famous for his leading role in "Rich Man Poor Man Book 2" . His acting includes theatrical films and television programs in North America, he has now forged a full and engaging career in the United Kingdom with leading roles in Taggart, Lovejoy, Ellington and many more. He is also an accomplished West End Leading Actor and singer with his own one man show "Mark Twain On Womankind" which he has played all over the world, from Bombay to California to rave reviews and packed houses. Jordan audio books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard and more. His stage performances "Mark Twain On Womankind" and "Mark Twain Out West" are available to buy, as is his autobiography Life As We Know It Jim. He starred in Tennessee Williams' "Spring Storm" and Eugene O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon" at National Theatre in London.- The short-haired Mitsushima Hikari was born in Okinawa, which is Japan's southernmost prefecture and mostly occupied by the American military since World War II. Mitsushima's grandmother was French-American. Her siblings are a model, a basketball player and an actor. Hikari began her entertainment career in the band Folder and all-girl Folder 5 between 1997 and 2003. before beginning acting intermittently. She did some gravure modelling. She began taking on consistent acting roles in 2009 with Pride and Sion Sono's exotic Love Exposure. Her performance in Love Exposure won her accolades. Hikari starred in the comedy Sawako Decides (2010), which was written and directed by Yuya Ishii, whom she subsequently married in late 2010. They divorced less than six years later. Hikari won the award for Best Actress at the Fantasia Film Festival. The film itself won the award for Best Feature.
- Actor
- Music Department
Kenta Miyake was born on 23 August 1977 in Okinawa, Japan. He is an actor, known for Wolf's Rain (2003), My Hero Academia (2016) and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin IV - Eve of Destiny (2016).- Yuina Kuroshima was born on 15 March 1997 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress, known for The Black Swindler (2022), 12 Suicidal Teens (2019) and Blue Flame (2014).
- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Gackt was born Gakuto Oshiro in Okinawa, Japan. His father was a music teacher, and his mother also a teacher. He is the second of three children, with an older sister and younger brother.
His musical education began early, and he started learning classical music theory and piano from the age of three. After exposure to rock music during his teenage years, he practiced electric guitar and drums intensely. In the early 1990s he was working as a sound technician and studio drummer, but by the mid-'90s he had begun his career as a singer. He spent a short time in the independent band Cains:Feel before moving on to the visual kei rock band Malice Mizer. With Gackt as vocalist, lyricist, and composer, they rose to fame within the visual kei genre. In 1999 he parted ways with the band and launched his solo career, debuting with the EP Mizérable. He has since released nine studio albums, eight compilation albums, and forty-four singles. He has toured extensively within Japan and also throughout Asia and Europe.
With an illustrious career spanning over 15 years, and forty-three consecutive singles ranked in the top ten of the Oricon music charts, he holds the title of the most successful male soloist in Japanese music history. A hallmark of his productions has been the use of all-encompassing, conceptual, and sometimes abstract themes, "Moon" and "Requiem et Reminiscence", to develop a series of related songs, concerts, movies, books or theatre play. To describe this idea he combined the words visual, live (concert), and alive to form the term "Visualive". It references the evocative and immersive experience he strives to create for his audiences.
In addition to his music career, Gackt has undertaken various film and television acting roles. He wrote and starred in his first cinematic production Moon Child (2003), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, and the Philadelphia Film Festival in 2004. In 2007 he received a TV Navi award for best supporting actor in a drama, for his portrayal of the powerful feudal leader Kenshin Uesugi in NHK's The Trusted Confidant (2007).
One of Gackt's most notable performances was as the samurai protagonist Yoshi in the Guy Moshe film Bunraku (2010), where he costarred alongside Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman and Demi Moore. His depiction of the unnerving eunuch Jo Teigai in NHK's TV drama Tempest (2011) was brought to movie screens the following year in Gekijouban Tenpesuto 3D (2012). Recently he reprised his role as both Takashi Shiki and Yumeoji (dream prince) from the television drama Akumu chan (2012) in the cinematic release, Akumu Chan the Movie (2014).
Gackt's numerous voice acting credits include animated films, such as Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (2012), and video games, with two from the popular Final Fantasy VII series; Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006)and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007) among others.
In his stage play debut Nemuri Kyoshiro Burahikae (2010), Gackt was cast as the leading character. He later expanded his theater credentials by resuming his "Moon" concept and writing, producing, composing and starring in Moon Saga - Yoshitsune Hiden (2012). He has since announced a sequel scheduled to begin in August 2014 entitled Moon Saga - Yoshitsune Hiden - Chapter 2 (2014).- Shinnosuke Mitsushima was born on 30 May 1989 in Okinawa, Japan. He is an actor, known for Erased (2016), Blade of the Immortal (2017) and Napping Princess (2017).
- The Japanese actress, model and singer Kuroki Meisa was born in Okinawa, Japan, which is the southernmost Japanese prefecture, on May28, 1988. She was scouted when she was in junior high school and began her career as a model for the traditional women's magazine, JJ Magazine. Like Shimabukuro Hiroko she attended Okinawa Actors School from which she graduated in 2007. She began her career in 2004 on stage and subsequently had a role in Fuji TV's Medaka. She would go on to win the Television Drama Academy Award and TV Life Drama Grand Prix for Best Supporting Actress in for her role in the Fuji TV's drama, Ninkyo Helper, in 2009. Like most Japanese celebrities she also began singing and contributed to the soundtrack to the movie Crows Zero as well as act in it. Two full-length albums followed. Likewise, she does advertisements and commercials for corporate products including Epson, Armani and Uniqlo. She is managed by Sweet Power.
- Masane Tsukayama was born on 6 February 1944 in Okinawa, Japan. He is an actor, known for Ulysse 31 (1981), Millennium Actress (2001) and Cyberpunk 2077 (2020).
- Sasa Handa is a Japanese model, actress and former AV Idol who was born on April 18, 1985 in Okinawa, Japan. She has also used the name Chieri Haruyama. Under the name Chieri Haruyama she appeared in a number of wrestling cat-fight videos beginning in September 2003. The DVD series, Idol Fight MetoMix, was produced from full-length live wrestling tournaments with the women attired in bikinis. She appeared in volumes 1-2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 of the series released over the period from September 2003 to October 2004. August 2005, she was using the name Sasa Handa and was featured in the erotic horror V-Cinema film Onna Onmyoji - Jain kakusei directed by Shoji Tsuyoshi and released by TMC. Handa also appeared in other media including a regular role in the TV show Yarisugi koji as well as appearances on the TV Asahi variety show Kusano Kid and the TV Tokyo documentary Kyuuyo meisai. In February 2006 she appeared in the movie Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari as the character Eri Suzuki, in what was her first nude role. Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari was produced by the adult video studio Soft On Demand and soon afterwards that studio announced that Handa had signed with them as an AV actress. She made her AV debut with SOD in July 2006 with the video Debut. Despite only performing in AV for the second half of 2006, Handa received a number of awards for that year's work. In addition to continuing her AV career, in 2007 Handa also appeared in the role of Koichi Omote in three V-Cinema releases of the popular erotic comedy action series Kekko Kamen: Kekko Kamen Royale, Kekko Kamen Premium and Kekko Kamen Forever. Her co-star in the series was fellow AV actress Maria Ozawa. She was also a featured player in the May 2007 theatrical movie, Zero Woman R, part of the Zero Woman film series. Later in 2007, Handa starred in the V-Cinema erotic horror production Undead Pool, also known as Attack Girls Swim Team vs the Unliving Dead, which was released in Japan in December 2007. Handa retired from the AV industry in 2010 after four years and nearly fifty titles in order to pursue a mainstream acting career. Her retirement video set was a success. In December 2010, Handa starred in the dark fantasy movie Ai no Ejiki Jokyoshi Haruka no Kokuhaku. In 2011 she played the character Sanae Onoda in the live-action web series adaptation of the manga Futari Ecchi. Handa joined another former AV Idol, Kurumi Morishita, to co-star in the December 2012 romantic fantasy Love Me for Hundreds of Years directed by Toshiro Enomoto and written by Shinji Imaoka.
- Robert L. Powers was born on 1 January 1965 in Okinawa, Japan. He was an actor, known for Northern Lights. He was married to Sydney Penny. He died on 31 December 2024.
- Susan McClung was born in Okinawa, Japan. She is known for Quincy, M.E. (1976), Birch Interval (1976) and T.J. Hooker (1982).
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Tina Tamashiro was born on 8 October 1997 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress and director, known for AI Amok (2020), XxxHolic (2022) and Dolmen X (2018).- Tarusuke Shingaki was born on 18 June 1976 in Kumejima, Okinawa, Japan. He is an actor, known for The Cat Returns (2002), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) and Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (2015).
- Fuuko was born on 10 February 1988 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress, known for Kagayakeru chichi onna to uruwashi no shiri onna (2007), P-Chan Busting Into America (2017) and The Breast Around: Electric Boobaloo (2016).
- Seina Shimabukuro was born on 4 April 1987 in Nago, Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress, known for Hibana (2016), Terrace House: Closing Door (2015) and Terrace House: Opening New Doors (2017).
- Higa Manami was born in Uruma, Okinawa in Southern Japan on 14.06.1986. She has two younger sisters. Uruma is under American occupation and the site of multiple US bases. She graduated from the Okinawa Prefectural Central High School. Her first role was in the film Letters From Kanai Nirai, which featured Aoi Yu. Her school teacher connected with the president of an entertainment agency allowing her to go into modelling as of 2003 while at school. She was chosen in an audition from a selection of 2,156 budding actresses to appear in NHK's Asadora Dondo Hare ('Happy End') in 2006. This title uses Iwate Prefecture's dialect. The producer explained to her that her regional dialect and fresh demeanour fit the vibe of the serial. She joined her mother, who was a model, in the entertainment business and moved to Tokyo upon graduation from high school. Her parents made her promise to return to Okinawa within one year if she has not found success in that time. She had flowing long hair until being forced to cut it to appear in GTO in 2014. She is friends with Aragaki Yui and Toda Erika her Code Blue co-stars. She has two picture books. Manami is managed by Rising Production.
- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Shino Shimoji was born on 4 June 1993 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress, known for Shy (2023), The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible (2024) and The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat (2021).- Yû Yamada was born on 5 July 1984 in Okinawa, Japan. She is an actress, known for Shiawase no shippo (2002), Akihabara@Deep (2006) and Lupin the 3rd (2014). She has been married to Shun Oguri since 14 March 2012.