Nana Seino

Seino was born on October 14, 1994, in Inazawa, Aichi, Japan.^[1] During her middle school years, although she was a member of the basketball team, she often participated in track and field events as well. In particular, she competed at the national level in the high jump. This athletic ability became one of the key factors contributing to her success as one of Japan's rare action actresses.^[2] She started her entertainment career in 2007 as an exclusive model for the girls' fashion magazine Pichilemon.^[3] At the age of 15 Seino moved from Aichi to Tokyo alone, later graduating from Japan Arts High School.^[4][5] When she saw Resident Evil, she admired Milla Jovovich, and soon became a pupil of Tak Sakaguchi, who is an action choreographer and actor.^[6]

Seino made her television acting debut in 2011 as Momoka Kurakano in the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television adaptation of Bisco Hatori's manga series Ouran High School Host Club.^[7] After minor roles in two films, she successfully auditioned for the role of Sunmi in the 2014 Sono Sion action film Tokyo Tribe, a "hip-hop musical" about warring Tokyo gangs, adapted from Santa Inoue's manga series.^[8] While Variety's Dennis Harvey described Sunmi as "a secretive stranger" who becomes "an unstoppable killing machine when ill treated,"^[9] Martin Tsai of the Los Angeles Times suggested that Sunmi's only reason to be in the movie was "to flash her undergarment every time she does a roundhouse kick that inadvertently lifts up her skirt."^[10] A second supporting action role, as Mari in the Shusuke Kaneko film Danger Dolls, followed.^[11] At the 36th Yokohama Film Festival Seino won a Best Newcomer award for her work in Tokyo Tribe and Danger Dolls.^[12] Later in 2014 Seino turned 20 years old while playing the supporting role of Kanna Seki in the Fuji TV drama Time Taxi.^[13]

The next year Seino played the lead role of Ai in Mamoru Oshii's bullying revenge film Nowhere Girl, as well as supporting roles in the TV Tokyo drama Love Theory,^[14] the TBS adaptation of the manga series Dr. Storks,^[15] the TBS police drama Ouroboros,^[16] and the Yoshihiro Nishimura historical film The Ninja War of Torakage.^[17] In 2016 she played the lead role in the short 4DX horror film Rain Woman and the supporting role of Jaku in Kankurō Kudō's afterlife comedy Too Young To Die!.^[18][19]

Seino landed her first lead role in a television series as Tetsuko Kuroyanagi in Totto-Chan!, the 2017 TV Asahi adaptation of Kuroyanagi's autobiographical memoir Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window.^[20] That same year she starred in the film Perfect Revolution as Mitsu, a mentally ill prostitute who falls in love with a man who has cerebral palsy.^[21] In 2018 Seino appeared as Yuko Komiya in several episodes of the 98th NHK asadora Half Blue Sky,^[22] and as Riko Akasaka in NTV's adaptation of the Hiroyuki Nishimori manga series From Today, It's My Turn!!^[23]

Seino married actor Toma Ikuta on June 1, 2020.^[24] On March 9, 2022, she announced that she gave birth to her first child.^[25]