Kanta Sato

Kanta Sato (佐藤 寛太, Satō Kanta, born 16 June 1996)^[1] is a Japanese actor, he is a member of EXILE's theater company (Gekidan EXILE). He is best known for his role as Naoki Irie in the 2016 film Itazura no Kiss the Movie: High School.

Kanta Sato
佐藤寛太
Sato at the opening ceremony of The 31st Tokyo International Film Festival, 2018.
Born	(1996-06-16) 16 June 1996 (age 28) Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2015–present
Agent	LDH
Website	Sato_k

Sato is represented with LDH.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Kanta Sato was born on June 16, 1996, in Tsushima (Fukuoka Prefecture), Japan, where he lived until the age of 7.^[2] He has two brothers and used to play baseball from his first year in elementary school to the 3rd year of Junior high school.^[3] The Rampage from Exile Tribe's Shogo Iwaya and Hokuto Yoshino were his classmates in high school.^[4]

Career

Sato aimed for the entertainment industry after watching the movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close when he was in Junior high school.^[3]

In 2013, he participated in the EXPG National Academy Audition in the model department of the Fukuoka branch and passed, which led him to learn dancing.^[5] In the same year, he participated in the Exile vocal audition Vocal Battle Audition 4 but failed during the first screening.^[6]

In 2014, he participated in Exile Performer Battle Audition and made it to the second screening but ultimately did not pass.^[6] In the same year, he became a trainee of Exile's theater company after passing the "Gekidan Exile audition".^[7]

In January 2015, Sato officially joined Gekidan Exile and started his activities as an actor.^[8] He made his acting debut in the drama High & Low The Story Of S.W.O.R.D.

In 2016, he played his first lead role in the film Itazura no Kiss the Movie: High School.

On 16 June 2021, he released his first personal book titled "Next Break", with one of the four photographers involved being his actor friend Takumi Kitamura.^[9][10]

Filmography

Movies

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2016	Itazura no Kiss the Movie: High School	Naoki Irie	Lead role	[11]
	Road To High & Low	Tettsu		[12]
	High & Low: The Movie	Tettsu		[13]
	High&Low The Red Rain	Tettsu		[14]
2017	Itazura na Kiss The Movie 2: Campus	Naoki Irie	Lead role	[15]
	Itazura na Kiss The Movie 3: Propose	Naoki Irie	Lead role	[16]
	High&Low The Movie 2 / End of Sky	Tettsu		[17]
	High&Low The Movie 3 / Final Mission	Tettsu		[18]
	Love and Lies	Sosuke Takachiho		[19]
2018	Missions of Love	Akira Shimotsuki		[20]
	Ao-Natsu	Izumiya Liquor Store Visitor		[21]
	DTC: Yukemuri Junjo Hen from High & Low	Tettsu		[22]
	Run! T High School Basketball Club	Koji Makizono		[23]
	Jam	Maejima		[24]
	Family Story	Yudai Watanabe		[25]
2019	High&Low The Worst	Tettsu		[26]
	Bento Harassment	Tatsuo Yamashita		[27]
	The Sketch of Life	Ryota Tanaka	Lead role	[28]
2021	We Made a Beautiful Bouquet	Shoma Tominokoji		[29]
	Gunkan Shōnen	Kaisei Sakamoto	Lead role	[30]
2023	(Ab)normal Desire	Daiya Morohashi		[31]
2024	Undead Lovers	Jun Kōno		[32]

TV dramas

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2018	The Detective is Way Ahead	Tsubasa Jonouchi		[33]
2019	Sweet Tai Chi	Shun Tsukiyama	Chinese internet drama	[34]
	Butler Saionji's Great Reasoning season 2	Ren Narahashi	Episode 6	[35]
	Da rapper bites and becomes a rapper	Takuma Yamanouchi	Special drama	[36]
2020	Chuzai Keiji Season 2	Shohei Karube		[37]
	Tonari no Masala	Tatsuya Sawaki	Lead role	[38]
	Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi	Tatsuomi Takahashi		[39][40]
	Hakujitsu no Karasu 2	Kohei Tachibana	Special drama	[41]
2021	Himitsu no Ai-chan	Reo Amano	Lead role	[42]
	JAM -the drama-	Leslie Cheung Cheung		[43]
	Chef wa Meitantei	Daisuke Ogura		[44]
	Tokyo MER: Mobile Emergency Room	Haruto Fukasawa		[45]
2022	Chuzai Keiji Season 3	Shohei Karube		[46]
	Sweat and Soap	Kotaro Natori		[47]
2025	In Lilac Bloom, The Path to a Veterinarian	Kazuma Kase	Miniseries	[48]

TV shows

Date	Title	Notes	Ref.
2019	Oyasumi Ouji		[49]

Radio drama

Date	Title	Role	Ref.
2016	Saturday Drama house "Beautiful Boy's Theater" Story No. 16 "Hajikeru otoko"	Shimotsuki/ a clerk of a video shop /a guest of a movie theater	[50][51]
	Saturday Drama House "Beautiful Boy's Theater" Story No. 19 "Dancing in the Nursery"	Todo Naoyuki, Sakurai Yui	[52]

Bibliography

Personal Book

Year	Title	Ref.
2021	NEXT BREAK	[9]