Sakurako Konishi

Konishi first became interested in an acting career after watching Sion Sono's film Himizu in junior high school.^[2] She subsequently appeared in a self-produced film at university, and began to send her resume to entertainment agencies and attended auditions. After meeting film director Masaoki Hirota, she was cast as the heroine in his 2020 film Fancy [ja], which became her first commercial film appearance.^[2] She was also cast as the heroine in Takashi Miike's First Love, being chosen out of 3,000 applicants in auditions in 2019.^[3] She also appeared on the cover and the opening gravure of the manga magazine Young King, for the 2 March 2020 issue, published by Shōnen Gahōsha.^[4]

Konishi has stated that she is not affiliated with an entertainment agency, choosing instead to "prioritize the approaches she wants to develop in her work."^[5] She does however have a manager.^[6] In 2020 she won the 42nd Yokohama Film Festival's Best Newcomer Award for her work in First Love, Fancy, and Sasaki In My Mind [ja].^[7] She was also nominated for the 14th Asian Film Awards Award for Best Newcomer that year.^[8]