Takeshi Kaneshiro

Date of Birth: 10/11/1973
Birth Place: Taipei, Taiwan
Ethnicity: Japanese

Taken from Takeshi's Wikipedia Article
With a Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother, Kaneshiro was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. He has two brothers. After being bullied at a regular Taiwanese high school over his mixed heritage, he enrolled at English-based Taipei American School, which enabled him to converse in English, making him effectively trilingual considering his fluency in Mandarin and Japanese. It was while he was studying there that he began doing TV commercials, and he decided to quit school in order to pursue a singing and acting career.

In 1992, Kaneshiro made his singing debut, entering the business with the nickname Aniki, meaning 'older brother' in Japanese. His debut album was Heartbreaking Night (1992). Contracted to EMI, he wrote many of his own Mandarin and Cantonese songs. The following year, his popularity propelled him into acting and he now no longer produces any commercial music.

His first movie was Executioners (1993) and this was followed by the critically acclaimed Wong Kar-Wai film Chungking Express (1994) and a string of other Hong Kong movies. Later, Kaneshiro starred in the highly successful Japanese TV mini-series God, Please Give Me More Time (1998), allowing him to branch into Japanese movies such as Returner (2002). He also became well known in the video game industry portraying the samurai warrior, Samanosuke, in the Capcom hit, Onimusha.

Outside of the entertainment business, Kaneshiro has acted as a spokesperson for Prada in Asia. His reluctance for publicity is legendary, so much to the extent that no one knows of his marital status or any other relationships.

As a result of his varied background, Kaneshiro can speak with varying degrees of fluency in English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese.

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