Biography

Hollywood-based actor, writer, director and producer Yuki Matsuzaki, born in Miyazaki, Japan began acting at the age of 7 in a small theatrical group that performed for children. He performed over 50 shows in local theaters until he was 18. Upon graduating high school, he decided to dedicate his life to acting and moved to New York City to become an accomplished actor with the versatility to perform in both English and Japanese. Upon his arrival, all his money was stolen and he became homeless. In order to survive, he started performing on the streets of Times Square where his first-day tally after performing 8-hours was a mere $4.00.

Hard work finally paid off when Edward Zwick cast him in The Last Samurai (2003). Then Hollywood started booking him more. Early roles included Drunken Sword (2005) and Roku (2005). Next, Clint Eastwood cast him as Nozaki in Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and admired at his great transformation. To prepare for the role, he only digested celery and water for five weeks to experience famine, confined himself inside dark closets and bathrooms to recreate the claustrophobic atmosphere for the cave fighting sequences. After Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), NBC offered him a co-star role in their hit TV show Heroes (2006).

In 2009, he starred alongside Steve Martin, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina and Aishwarya Rai as a member of an international dream team of detectives in Pink Panther 2 (2009). He followed that up with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), along with guest star roles in the ABC Family show Melissa & Joey (2011) and HBO's The Newsroom (2012).

He became more internationally recognized when he starred opposite Eugene Domingo, one of Asia's top award-winning actresses from the Philippines in Instant Mommy (2013).

At the Asian Film Festival, he won Best Actor in a Leading Role for Locksmith (2015) for portraying the psychotic serial murderer Tadashi. In 2018, he won Best Actor in a Leading Role for Othello-san (2018) for depicting the stern, unyielding professor Yamada. He also served as an executive producer for the film actively involved within every aspect of the production. He had also starred in a hit miniseries HodoBuzz (2020) where he played Shibata, a conflicted yet passionate Japanese journalist.

He is also an accomplished voice-over actor well-known for portraying one of the most iconic Japanese cartoon characters in the entire world: Miyamoto Usagi, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (2017). He also voiced characters in The Lion Guard (2019), We Bare Bears (2019) and Glitch Techs (2020).

He's known to be a strong supporter of diversity in the film/TV industries. Currently, he wrote, produced and starred in Mosaic Street (2022), a Japanese/English crime drama set in a near-future Japan where diversity is already a norm. It is made to advocate diversity in the Japanese film/TV industries where minority actors have virtually no representation. Starring openly transgender actress Kota Ishijima, openly lesbian actress Ami Ide, and Afro-Japanese actress Ema Grace.

- IMDb mini biography by: William-Michael International Artist Relations