Hiro Mizushima

Under his pen name , he wrote his first novel, Kagerou, which was chosen as the winner of the 5th Popular Publishing Grand Prize for Fiction and was published in 2010.

Career Mizushima first appeared on Japanese television in 2005, where he played Hiro Misawa, a minor character in the second season of Gokusen. In the same year, he found guest starring roles in Japanese dramas such as Ame to Yume no Ato ni and a small role in the TBS drama Brother Beat.

In 2006, Mizushima became a main character in the series Kamen Rider Kabuto and acted in the lead role in the film Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love.

Beginning in 2007, Mizushima began taking on bigger roles in more high-profile productions, such as the supporting role of the Minami Nanba in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e and the main role of Soshi Asamoto in Zettai Kareshi in 2008. Both dramas were among the most popular dramas of Japan at the time of their airing. Mizushima also provided the voice of Bruce Banner in the Japanese dub of The Incredible Hulk. Mizushima took the role of Jiro Mori in the 2008 TV drama Room of King.

In 2009, he starred in the drama Mei-chan no Shitsuji as Rihito Shibata, a perfect butler. In the same year, he landed the role of Toranosuke Hayashida in the drama Mr. Brain in which he played a detective's assistant. Later that year, Mizushima starred alongside Shun Oguri in the drama Tokyo Dogs, playing a detective who is a hot-blooded fighting expert due to his earlier days as a delinquent. He also starred in the feature film Drop in the same year in the role of Tatsuya Iguchi, a middle school student in a delinquent gang.

In 2010, Mizushima landed the role of Ryusuke Minami in the film Beck, in which once again acted alongside Mei-chan no Shitsuji co-star Takeru Satoh.

In September 2010, Mizushima left his talent agency, Ken-On, to create an own independent agency called A Station. Several weeks later, on 31 October 2010, it was announced that Mizushima had won the 5th Poplar Publishing Grand Prize for Fiction and a cash prize of 20 million yen for his debut work, titled Kagerou, written under the pen name but he decided to decline the 20 million yen prize money. The book was published in December 2010. In the two and a half years of Oricon's book charts, Kagerou recorded the third highest first-week sales, behind J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (1.191 million) and Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 Book 3 (398,000).

In 2014, Mizushima starred as Sebastian Michaelis in the film Black Butler, in which he also serves as the co-screenwriter and co-producer. The film was shown at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival and Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2014.

In August 2015, Mizushima announced that he would appear as a guest cast in the fifth season of HBO's Girls, which aired in 2016. This was his first international TV appearance.

On January 14, 2020, Hiro was announced as an ambassador of the upcoming eight installment of Shimajiro 3D CGI animated movie, which was released on February 28, 2020.

Personal life Mizushima is bilingual, being fluent in English and Japanese. He spent his whole elementary school years (1990 to 1996) in Zürich, Switzerland. He was bullied and discriminated against as a child at International School in Switzerland. When he came back to Japan, he attended the junior high school and the high school of Toin Gakuen, and belonged to the soccer club of the school. When he was in the twelfth grade, he worked as a regular midfielder in The 81st All Japan High School Soccer Tournament.

Mizushima graduated from Keio University and has a degree in Environmental Information.

He married Japanese pop singer Ayaka on 22 February 2009. In December 2014, the couple announced through their agency that they are expecting their first child. In June 2015, Mizushima announced via Instagram that he had become a father to a baby girl. In October 2019 they welcomed their second daughter.

On October 8, 2019, he became a YouTuber starring his own YouTube cooking show, Hiro-Meshi: Japanese Home-Style Cooking. One of the aired episode also guest starring his fellow actor from Kamen Rider Kabuto, Yūki Sato.

Filmography

Dramas Year Title Role Network Notes 2005 Gokusen (season 2) Hiro Misawa NTV Ame to Yume no Ato ni TV Asahi Episode 7 Brother Beat Yoshi TBS Pink no Idenshi Ikushima Mizuki TV Tokyo Episode 3 2006 Kamen Rider Kabuto Souji Tendou/Souji Tendou (Mimic) TV Asahi 2007 Kanojo to no Tadashii Asobikata Kyoji Fujiki TV Asahi Watashitachi no Kyokasho Yahata Daisuke Fuji TV Hanazakari no Kimitachi e Nanba Minami Fuji TV Gutannubo (Gout Temps Nouveau) Drama Special Fuji TV Churaumi Kara no Nengajo Kota Miyashita Fuji TV 2008 Zettai Kareshi Soshi Asamoto Fuji TV Room of King Moriji/Jiro Mori Fuji TV Hanazakari no Kimitachi e SP Minami Nanba Fuji TV 2009 Mei-chan no Shitsuji Rihito Shibata Fuji TV Zettai Kareshi SP Soshi Asamoto Fuji TV Mr. Brain Toranosuke Hayashida TBS Tokyo Dogs Maruo Kudo Fuji TV 2016 Girls (season 5) Yoshi Kadokura HBO Episodes 3, 5

Films Year Title Role 2006 Hatsukare Ibushi Lovely Complex Ryoji Suzuki Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love Souji Tendou 2007 Kanojo to no Tadashii Asobikata Takeshi Fujiki 100 Scene no Koi Yoji/Sota/Kazuya GS Wonderland Shun Masamiya 2009 Drop Tatsuya Iguchi 2010 Beck Ryūsuke Minami 2014 Black Butler Sebastian Michaelis

Dubbing The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton)

Books Kagerou (2010)

Photo books Hiro (January 2007) With You (November 2007) Hiromode (December 2008) Water Island: Peace (December 2009)

Music videos Silent Scream Girl Next Door - Guest appearance and co-scriptwriter (2011)