Yû Shirota

Birthday: 26 December 1985, Tokyo, Japan

Height: 188 cm

Yuu Shirota (Japanese romanization, Shirota Yuu) is a Japanese actor and singer. He is known most notable for his role as Tezuka Kunimitsu in The Prince of Tennis movie and Tenimyu musicals and for hi ...Show More

Yuu Shirota (Japanese romanization, Shirota Yuu) is a Japanese actor and singer. He is known most notable for his role as Tezuka Kunimitsu in The Prince of Tennis movie and Tenimyu musicals and for his role as Tuxedo Kamen in the Sailor Moon Musicals. He is also part of a young men's stage acting troupe, D-Boys, which perform in various skit-like performances.Yuu Shirota was born on the 26th of December 1985 to parents of interracial marriage. He is half Japanese from his father's side and half Spanish from his mother's side. Because his mother is Spanish, he lived in Barcelona, Spain until he was about 2 years old. He returned to Japan for elementary school and could still speak Spanish in ordinary conversation. According to Shirota, when he was little, his family liked to sing songs, so he would borrow his older sister's keyboard, while his mother taught him piano. Thus spawned Shirota's love for composing. He composed his first piece when he was in the fourth grade, titled the "The Tear".On November 16th, 2005, Shirota released an Idol DVD called With U. He has also appeared in various numbers of commercials, commercial videos, TV shows, musicals, and movies. He's appeared in MISIA's "In My Soul" music video. And he has appeared in a series of commercial videos for the games Shadow Hearts From the New World and for the game Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side.He also starred in the Watanabe net drama, Hice Cool (2005), appearing alongside fellow D-Boy members, Yanagi Kotarou, Endou Yuuya, and Osamu Adachi.Shirota is part of the Watanabe Entertainment group named D-BOYS. He is one of the original members of the group. As a member of the D-Boys, he also keeps a blog, which he updates occasionally and includes a personal video greeting from him. Being a part of the D-Boys has provided Shirota with a lot of opportunities. Among them was to perform with the group of boys and expand his experience as a performer. The D-Boys so far have released two Photobooks. The first photo-book released on April 27, 2005, was self-titled D-Boys, while the second, released on March 15th, 2006, was called Start, both which contain many photos of Shirota. He's also hosted a radio show called "Marvelous Radio Vibration" with fellow D-Boys member, Kotaroh Yanagi. The show ended its run on April 1st, 2006.From 2003 to 2004, Shirota became the 7th actor to play Tuxedo Kamen (Tuxedo Mask) in the Sailor Moon Musicals. After his role as Tuxedo Kamen, Shirota won the role of Kunimitsu Tezuka, the stoic captain of Seigaku Middle School's tennis club. And from 2005 to 2006, he became the third actor to play Tezuka in The Prince of Tennis Musicals. His role as Tezuka was carried into the live adaptation film of the manga. Then on March 29th, 2006, in the Dream Live 3rd Live concert, he along with the majority of the Seigaku cast, graduated from their roles.Shirota was able to carry on his role as Kunimitsu Tezuka from the musicals to the live-adaptation film of the anime/manga series, _"Tennis no oujisama" (2001)_. He, along with most of the principle cast members for the Seigaku boys, were able to reprise their roles in the movie.Shirota's next movie, the June Bride opened on May 27, 2006. He played the title character, Natsumi. The movie also costars fellow D-Boy members, Hiroki Suzuki and Hirofumi Araki. Hide