MAKI HORIKITA

Subject: MAKI HORIKITA Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:45 pm

Maki Horikita (Horikita Maki, born October 6, 1988, in Kiyose, Tokyo) is a Japanese actress and endorser. She had her acting debut in 2003 as a U-15 idol and has since starred in a number of Japanese television dramas, television and magazine ads, and films

Amongst Horikita's many drama and movie stints, she gained much recognition in the 2005 television dramas, Densha Otoko and Nobuta wo Produce. Her exemplary portrayal of the titular character in Nobuta wo Produce bagged her a Best Supporting Actress award from a Japanese award-giving body. The role propelled her into popularity. Shortly after Nobuta wo Produce, Horikita starred in a television special, Tsubasa ni Oreta Tenshitachi (Wingless Angels), a 4-night special that featured 4 of the most popular young Japanese actresses in roles that depicted the darker reality of the lives of young Japanese women. In 2005 she also appeared in the baseball movie Gyakkyo Nine.

On a different note, the chemistry between her character, Nobuko (commonly known as Nobuta) and Akira Kusano, played by Japanese idol and NEWS member Tomohisa Yamashita, was recognized as well, leading both of them to star in another drama, Kurosagi. Playing the role of Tsurara Yoshikawa, a law student who disapproves of Kurosagi's swindling ways and who, ironically, falls in love with the con artist. Horikita bagged her second Best Supporting Actress for performing the said role a year after she received her first one from the same award-giving body. A number of producers and scriptwriters have come to recognize her acting skills and soon she was given the lead role for Teppan Shoujo Akane, and the role of a mastermind bully who pulled the strings from behind a class of rebellious students in the drama Seito Shokun!, where her talent agency senior Rina Uchiyama is the lead actress. She was also part of the Japan-South Korea collaboration movie, One Missed Call: Final, third and last installment of the One Missed Call franchise with Meisa Kuroki and Jang Geun-suk.

Come 2007, her role as Mizuki Ashiya in the Japanese drama adaptation of the gender-bender manga Hana-Kimi, or Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, earned her a Best Actress award, her first one to date. Towards the end of the series, Horikita has been attending press conferences here and there for three of her other projects: the Taiga drama, Atsuhime; the suspense movie where she plays the lead character who has multiple personality disorder entitled Tokyo Shōnen, and the sequel to her breakthrough movie, Always: Sunset on Third Street, Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi.

All of her exceptional work paid off when Horikita was chosen by Vogue Nippon as one of its eleven recipients of the prestigious Women of the Year award for 2007. Other recipients of the same award include Ayase Haruka and Anna Tsuchiya.

It was early 2008 when Horikita was chosen as the lead actress for NTV's two-part four-hour special, Tokyo Daikushu, which was televised on March 17 and 18, 2008. The drama was a special commemoration of Japan during the World War II era, when Japan had been under siege. Alongside actor Tatsuya Fujiwara of the Death Note fame, she played the role of Haruko Sakuragi, a nurse whose father had been killed years when his factory had been bombed during the war. Fujiwara, on the other hand, is the man who saved her during her father's death, and who is later on brought into a hospital as a patient with a heart condition where the two once again cross paths. Other actors in the drama special include Eita, Yuki Shibamoto, Ryoko Kuninaka, Hiroshi Tachi and Miki Maya, with the drama's music composed by Yoshiki of the legendary rock band X-Japan..

Subject: Re: MAKI HORIKITA Mon May 24, 2010 11:49 pm

she's Ashiya right?