Paolo Andrea Di Pietro

He was born on November 8, 1986, in Milan. He started studying guitar at the age of 10 and singing at the age of 16. In 2006, he began studying opera at the Milan Conservatory. He also attended the University of Milan majoring in English and Japanese studies, including language and culture. He graduated from the same university and moved to Japan in 2014.^[1]

Under the guidance of the tenor Angelo Lo Forese and the bass Bonaldo Giaiotti he won his first vocal competition in 2012 and had his operatic debut in the same year as the title role in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.^[9] In 2013 he performed the role of Daland from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in over 20 famous Italian theaters, such as Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 2015 he had his operatic debut in Japan as Colline in Puccini's La bohème for the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs.^[10] In 2019 he performed for the first time in the United States, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.^[11]

In 2018 he passed the audition for the Japanese TV Commercial for a product called AirPay by Recruit, acting beside Joe Odagiri. The comedic commercial, his first on screen job, soon went viral in Japan and became a still ongoing series.^[1] In 2019 he appeared in episodes 31 and 32 of the TV Program KAT-TUN no Sekai Ichi Tame ni Naru Tabi Plus on the Paravi streaming service and once the program moved to TBS Television, he became a regular guest until the program ended in 2021.^[12] In 2020 he performed the singing role of the "Ketchup Demon" next to Naomi Watanabe and Yūki Iwai from Haraichi in the live comedy program Owarai no Hi - Oto Neta Fes, the character went viral on Japanese Twitter, reaching rank 1 in Twitter trends.^[13] Currently, he is active as an actor, voice actor, narrator, musician and lyricist in various media such as TV commercials, TV shows, movies, anime and video games.^[6][14][15]