Acting
Jun 10, 1988
Naha, Okinawa, Japan
Yui Aragaki
Acting
Biography
Yui Aragaki is a Japanese idol, model, actress, singer, seiyū and occasional radio show host. She is most well-known for her role in the 2007 movie "Koizora" (also known as "Sky of Love") which was a box office hit. Yui Aragaki was born in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture on June 11, 1988, and has two older sisters. After seeing an audition notice for the junior fashion magazine Nicola (ニコラ Nikora), she applied for it and won the Grand Prix award for the audition. In 2001, at the age of 13, she began her Nicola modelling career and was very well received as a Nicola model, having set a record for appearing on cover for 15 times. A fellow Nicola model Ayako Enomoto gave her the popular nickname "Gakki." At the age of 15, Aragaki moved to Tokyo and enrolled in Horikoshi High School, a private high school popular for being attended by many Japanese celebrities. In 2004, she decided to put her Nicola career on hold and expand her career path into gravure and acting, and she also appeared in variety shows and commercials, with her Pocky commercials being the most popular. A year later, she officially graduated from Nicola. Even so, she still appears in the magazine occasionally. In 2005, Aragaki took up a role in the TBS drama, Dragon Sakura, starring alongside Japanese idols like Tomohisa Yamashita and Masami Nagasawa. This marked a breakthrough in her acting career. Since then, she has been cast in many other dramas, like My Boss, My Hero and Gal Circle. She also starred in the 2007 tragic love story movie hit Koizora, for which she won her first award, the Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Newcomer. Currently, she has 5 newcomer awards. Aragaki won the Film prize at the 45th Golden Arrow Awards in 2008. Her tremendous number of movie shoots as well as the preparation for her debut album resulted in her suffering from work-related stress in 2007. Outside acting she also released her first album, Sora, and the single "Heavenly Days", a song from Koizora. "Memories", the theme song for Tokyo Serendipity, was included in her debut album. She also performed at Budokan. She was also the co-hosts for popular radio program Girls Locks in 2010-2012.
Feature Films (25)
Natsumi which has been moved to a deceased mother's family in Izu, to change schools to the same high school as the cousin, driven into lacrosse. But one day, you know the father and his secret.
True Love
Mika is a fresh high school student who starts texting a mysterious boy. She is shocked when he reveals who he is - Hiro, a delinquent attending her school. What she doesn't know is that Hiro isn't as bad as he seems.
Sky of Love
A young girl tries to maintain a long-distance relationship with an aspiring fisherman.
Dogwood Tree
Based on the plot of an award-winning Crayon Shin-chan animated movie from 2002, a boy named Shinichi time-travels and meets a feared general named Ijiri Matabei. Ijiri is in love with Princess Ren, who subsequently rejects an arranged marriage to Okura Itakatora, a powerful daimyo of northern Kanto. Enraged by the rejection, Okura sends a large army to Ijiri's smaller state, and it's up to Shinichi to change their destiny.
Ballad
A man's body is found under the statue of a winged kirin in the Nihombashi area of Tokyo. A suspect named Yashima has a car accident and falls unconscious while he is attempting to run away. Yashima's lover Kaori comes from Fukushima and tells detectives that he is absolutely not a criminal. Meanwhile, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga's (Hiroshi Abe) investigates and uncovers a point of contact between the dead body and Yashima. A hidden fact of the victim is revealed which even his children did not know about...
The Wings of the Kirin
Television & Series (25)
Following the ascension to power of Taira no Kiyomori, the Minamoto clan is exiled. Minamoto no Yoritomo meets Masako, the sister of Hōjō Yoshitoki and later marries her. Following this marriage, the gears of Yoshitoki's destiny begin to turn.
The 13 Lords of the Shogun
Smile is a Japanese television drama series, shown on TBS started last April 17, 2009. Jun Matsumoto plays the lead role of Vito, a half-Filipino, half-Japanese man who always smiles despite all of the problems and difficulties he faces. The series focus on foreigners and mixed-race children who suffered from racism
Smile
Set in a virtual simulation of Shibuya, Tokyo which is regulated by an entity named Piece which does not allow inhabitants to live, the series focuses on a fifteen-year-old boy named Tsuyoshi who seeks to find both his lost memories and a way to escape Shibuya. To maintain control, Piece locks "kills" those who do not operate within the proper confines of the world, which results in their being reset and inserted back into the city with a new name and identity and without their previous memories.
Sh15uya
Komatsu Kie (Key), a magazine writer from Tokyo, teams up with Omine Sakura, an Okinawa native, to pursue the truth of a sexual assault case.
Fence
Four young physicians are assigned to the “Doctor Helicopter” system, the latest medical system where a medical team is dispatched to the patients via helicopter to provide medical care in the field as soon as possible. The doctors experience traumatic medical situations, deal with personal ambitions, and witness the fragility of life, all while growing personally and professionally.
