Tadanobu Asano

Biography:

The actors Mikijirō Hira and Yoshiko Sakuma were the parents of Hira, who was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan.  Up to the age of fifteen, he was brought up in Japan. He attended Brown University after graduating from Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States.

The film Rokumeikan, written by Yukio Mishima, marked his theatrical debut in 2002. He collaborated closely with his father, Japanese actor Mikijirō Hira. With his father portraying Othello, Takehiro portrayed Iago in the Othello performance. His portrayal of Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the final shogun, in the NHK taiga drama Atsuhime brought him widespread acclaim. He has starred in a number of Takashi Miike films, such as Ace Attorney, Aku no Kyoten, and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai. In the high-profile movie Nobou’s Castle, he portrays Natsuka Masaie.