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Japanese-Danish actor, director, scriptwriter, and martial artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Sakurai (Copenhagen, 19 July 1979) is a Danish Japanese actor, director, scriptwriter and martial artist.
David Sakurai was born in Copenhagen to a Japanese father and a Danish mother and raised in Frederiksværk, Denmark. He has a brother named Kristoffer, who is a former dancer.[1]
Sakurai was interested in filmmaking from a young age and at the age of 18 moved to Japan, where he also learned acting. He played smaller roles in theatre and in indie films, like Tokyo G.P. in 2001 and Scarlet Runaway in 2005.[2][3]
Sakurai returned to Denmark in 2008,[4] mainly because he wanted to work with Jack Hansen and other talented new directors and in his native tongue.[5] Here he continued training under the Danish Actors' Association. He played one of his first leading roles in Eastern Army.[4] He worked with Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Van Zandt and Hans Petter Moland, among others.[6]
In 2012, Sakurai starred in Hungarian dark romantic comedy Liza, the Fox-Fairy, which won the Grand Prize at Portuguese film festival Fantasporto in 2015.[7][8]
Sakurai has trained in Wing Chun and Muay Thai, among other martial art styles.[2]
Sakurai lives in Los Angeles with his wife.[9]