Kenichi Matsuyama (松山 ケンイチ, Matsuyama Ken'ichi; born March 5, 1985) is a Japanese actor. He is known for his affinity for strange character roles, and he is best known internationally for playing L in the 2006 films Death Note, Death Note 2: The Last Name, and L: Change the World in 2008. He played the main character Toru Watanabe in the film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood.
His stage name uses the katakana spelling of his first name (ケンイチ) instead of the usual kanji (研一).
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Early career
In 2000 he entered Aomori Prefectural Ominato High School. While there, he debuted as a model, in 2001, for PARCO, after winning the Grand Prix "New Style Audition", an event in colaboration with the agency Horipro. from among 16,572 applicants. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School.
Matsuyama made his acting debut in the television series Gokusen in 2002.
He made his first film appearance in Bright Future in 2003.
He starred in the film Winning Pass in 2004, a movie with its main character modeled after real–life wheelchair basketball player Kohei Kamimura.
Matsuyama starred in Ultra Miracle Love Story in 2009, using the Tsugaru dialect of Japanese in the film.
He played a police detective in the 2023 drama Why Didn't I Tell You a Million Times?
He voiced the role of Balthazar Bratt in the Japanese dub of Despicable Me 3 in 2017.
He was in the stage play Seven Souls in the Skull Castle in 2017.
Personal life
On April 1, 2011, he married Koyuki Katō, who co-starred with him in Kamui Gaiden. The couple's first child was born in January 2012, and their second child was born in January 2013 in South Korea. In July 2015, the couple had their third child.
He speaks in the Shimokita dialect. He also presumably speaks English, judging from a scene in L: Change The World where he plays L, who is talking to Near in English.