Ryouta Katayose

Ryota Katayose is a singer, performer, actor and model. He belongs to the J-pop group GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE under the talent agency LDH JAPAN. Having music teachers as both his grandfather and father, he grew up playing the piano. He performed mostly as an accompanist at choir contests, and didn't have any thought of becoming an entertainer. But after being fascinated by the performance of the well-known J-pop group EXILE in a live concert that his mother invited him to, he considered the idea for the first time. Spurred on by his penchant for singing and compliments for it at karaoke, he decided to go for it in high school. His budding dream of becoming an artist grew slowly as he was further inspired by the passionate fellow auditionees, and the words of EXILE's vocalist ATSUSHI to him. So despite not being selected after reaching the final of a major vocal audition, he seriously began taking lessons with scholarship at EXPG — a school of performing arts from LDH. A year later he became a candidate member of the group GENERATIONS, and another year later, in 2012, he made his debut with the group as an official member. Besides his position as mainly a vocalist and also a performer (dancer), he wrote lyrics for his group a few times as well. Additionally, he's quite active as a model and actor. The protagonist's role in the live-action adaptation of the manga "Ani ni Aisaresugite Komattemasu" earned him a breakthrough in his career. Since then, he has acted in several J-dramas and movies, including "Gozen 0-ji, Kiss Shi ni Kite yo" — a live-action adaptation of another manga. In 2019, he did his debut voice acting for the protagonist Minato Hinageshi from the anime movie "Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara." He also sang the movie's theme song Brand New Story as one of the vocalists of GENERATIONS. As of September 2021, he has released two solo singles as a part of shows he starred in. Ryota is the first Japanese male celebrity to be selected by Variety as one of the most promising stars of Asia's next generation, winning one of the "8 Asian Stars: Up Next" awards at Macao's 4th International Film Festival & Awards. He also attained the Popular Artist Award at WEIBO Account Festival in Japan 2018, which became a testament of his vast popularity in China alongside his homeland.