Kenichi Matsuyama

In 2000 he entered Aomori Prefectural Ominato High School [ja]. While there, he debuted as a model, in 2001, for PARCO, after winning the Grand Prix "New Style Audition", an event in colaboration with the agency Horipro.^[2] from among 16,572 applicants. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School.^[1][3]

Matsuyama made his acting debut in the television series Gokusen in 2002.^[1]

He made his first film appearance in Bright Future in 2003.^[4]

He starred in the film Winning Pass [ja] in 2004, a movie with its main character modeled after real–life wheelchair basketball player Kohei Kamimura [ja].^[4][5]

Matsuyama starred in Ultra Miracle Love Story [ja] in 2009,^[4] using the Tsugaru dialect of Japanese in the film.^[6]

He played a police detective in the 2023 drama Why Didn't I Tell You a Million Times?^[7]

He voiced the role of Balthazar Bratt in the Japanese dub of Despicable Me 3 in 2017.^[8][9]

He was in the stage play Seven Souls in the Skull Castle [ja] in 2017.^[10]

On April 1, 2011, he married Koyuki Katō, who co-starred with him in Kamui Gaiden.^[11] The couple's first child was born in January 2012,^[12] and their second child was born in January 2013 in South Korea.^[13] In July 2015, the couple had their third child.^[14]

He speaks in the Shimokita dialect.^[15][16] He also presumably speaks English, judging from a scene in L: Change The World where he plays L, who is talking to Near in English.^{[citation needed]}