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Actor

1993-05-19 · Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan · Male

33 series in the catalog

Ryunosuke Kamiki (神木 隆之介, Kamiki Ryūnosuke; born 19 May 1993) is a Japanese actor. Starting his career as a child prodigy, he has garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards for his performances across 25 years in the industry.

Kamiki debuted in a 1995 commercial. Four years later, he had a leading role in the television drama Good News (1999). His early film roles include Spirited Away (2001), Bayside Shakedown 2 (2003), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006 (2006) and Big Man Japan (2007). He had his first leading roles in Takashi Miike's The Great Yokai War (2005) and Daihachi Yoshida's The Kirishima Thing (2012) and played supporting characters in Keishi Ōtomo's jidaigeki actioners Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends as well as Miike's horror film As the Gods Will (all 2014).

In 2016, Kamiki voiced the lead in Makoto Shinkai's anime film Your Name, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 11th Seiyu Awards.

After this, he collaborated with Shinkai again on Weathering with You (2019) and Suzume (2022) as supporting characters. Kamiki later co-starred with Minami Hamabe in two productions released in 2023: the TV drama series Ranman and Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One. His performance in the latter earned him global critical acclaim and the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor.

Biography

Kamiki was born on 19 May 1993, in Saitama Prefecture. He was fragile in infancy, spending months in intensive care, and at one point was given only a 1% chance of survival. He was not discharged from the hospital until he was seven months of age. Doctors believed that even if he survived, he would live his life with disability. His mother came up with the idea of making him a child actor to leave concrete proof of his existence. His family consists of his grandparents, father, mother, an older sister (11 years older than him) and two nieces. His grandmother died in 2020.

Career

Kamiki began acting as a child actor after entering the Central Group talent agency. His first commercial was for a Toy Box when he was only two years old. He made his television debut with the 1999 drama Good News in a lead role. In 2001, when he was eight years old, he was personally scouted by Hayao Miyazaki. Kamiki went on to voice characters in many of Studio Ghibli's feature films, giving him the title of the Ghibli Child. In 2004, he led the film Backdrop del mio Papa, for which he won his first award. In the following years, he continued to work both as an actor and voice actor, winning awards every two years. Kamiki won the Rookie Award 2020 at the Elan d'or Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in Japan.

On 16 March 2021, Kamiki left Amuse and founded Co-LaVo along with Takeru Satoh.

Other ventures

Kamiki wrote his first book Master's Cafe: The Fulfillment of Masters' Dreams in 2015. He approached fifteen professionals who are active on the front lines of various fields. In 2019, he made his stage debut with the play Beautiful: The Woman Who Met with God, written and directed by Suzuki Matsuo. The following year, he debuted in multiple fields such as a radio host for All Night Nippon 0 (ANN0), directing the music video for "I Treasure You" and opened his official YouTube channel. He was also the official photographer for Satoh's 2021 calendar. In 2020, he started to conceptualize his annual calendar.

The 2021 calendar, one part of the 25th anniversary project, was started when "Novel characters I want Kamiki to play" video was posted on his Twitter, urging fans to suggest novel characters for him to portray. It garnered reactions from many celebrities, including voice actor Yuki Kaji and film director Shunji Iwai, among others. Finally, twelve novels were selected from the retweets to represent the themes for the twelve months. The lineup expanded from classics to more recent pieces. The calendar shot by the renowned photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa was a new attempt to play different roles for twelve works in the calendar. As Yonosuke in Ihara Saikaku's The Life of an Amorous Man for August, props such as smoke tubes are used in a colorful set to express the sex appeal of adults that has never been seen before by him, and the novel published in May cover, No Longer Human (as Ōba Yōzō), the darkness of human beings and the beauty of men are produced. Of the twelve novels so far, Mysterious Weather at Yanaka's Retro Camera Store (as Imamiya Ryūichi) and Hamlet (as Ophelia), including the prior mentioned works have been confirmed. For this project, Kamiki sported silver hair for the first time, with shooting taking two days to complete. The calendar was sold on 25 December 2020, to signify the 25 year anniversary.

Kamiki was invited to be the photographer for Takeru Satoh's 2021 Calendar. The concept of a "photobook-like calendar" featured natural expressions when spending time with friends—with a sense of distance that can be taken by an old friend. It is a special calendar taken in places where Satoh wants to go with Kamiki and where he would like to take pictures of him, such as driving the car, in Shibuya and Harajuku, in maid cafes, etc. He took over eight thousand photos. Some are excluded in the desk calendar. He wants to have a photo exhibition and albums.

In 2022, Kamiki excavated one of the world's oldest ichthyosaur fossils in Minamisanriku in his first fossil excavation during the filming of From Miyagi. The fossil is on display at the Minasan Museum.

Artistry and public image

In the award-winning The Great Yokai War, he overcame his fear of swimming. For his role in Kokoro no Ito, he learned sign language and the piano. In 2022, he was voted the Most Powerful Actor in Japan.

Personal life

On February 10, 2026, Kamiki announced his marriage to his non-celebrity girlfriend.