From Behind the Mask to the Center of Japanese Cinema: The Formidable Talent of Masaki Suda
When a boy from Minoh, Osaka, passed a Toei audition and won the lead in a tokusatsu drama, he was still a teenager. A career that began with the title of "youngest lead in the franchise's history" would go on to a path of sweeping up leading roles across Japanese cinema.
Few actors make you do a double take and ask "is that the same person?" quite like Masaki Suda. A chameleon who reshapes even his face for each role, he has moved from serious drama to comedy to music—refusing to fit into any single label while turning out first-rate work again and again.
This is the record of a young man who started as a Kamen Rider and, instead of spreading himself thin, made everything he touched the real thing.
The Youngest Rider
Masaki Suda (real name Masaki Sugao) was born on February 21, 1993, in Minoh, Osaka. After local elementary and junior high schools he entered Osaka Prefectural Ikeda High School but withdrew, later graduating from the correspondence course at Hinode High School.
His acting life began in 2009. Passing a Toei audition, he debuted as Philip in the tokusatsu drama Kamen Rider W—the youngest lead in the franchise's history at the time. He raced through this gateway, the one so many actors step through, younger than anyone before him.
Breaking Out of Tokusatsu
Plenty of actors end their story at Kamen Rider. Suda did not. He took the lead in the 2013 film Guuguu the Cat and won the New Actor Award at the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize in 2014, transforming the very nature of his reputation from tokusatsu star to serious performer.
The chameleon quality—remaking his expression and bearing for every role—grew unmistakable around this time. Making audiences wonder "wait, is that the same person?" became one of his greatest weapons.
Ah, Wilderness: A Strike at the Summit
In 2017 his all-out performance in the film Ah, Wilderness drew wide acclaim. The following year, at the 41st Japan Academy Film Prize in 2018, he finally won Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Just a few years from his newcomer award, it was the moment he climbed, in name and substance, to the front rank of Japanese cinema.
His standing on stage was just as firm. In 2019 he won the Outstanding Actor Award and the Sugimura Haruko Award at the 27th Yomiuri Drama Awards for the stage production of Caligula. Film, television, theater—he kept delivering results in any arena.
An Actor Becomes a Singer
Suda did not stop at acting. He pursued music in earnest, and in 2019 the Kenshi Yonezu-produced single Machigaisagashi spread across social media into a major hit. That same year he made his first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen.
Aiming for the top as an actor while also standing on the Kohaku stage as a singer—it was a dual-track career so abundant that people called it greedy. And yet a loose, friendly Osaka-kid energy never left him, preserving the rare balance of being towering and approachable at once.
A Bouquet-Like Love, and a Family
In 2021 the film We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (Hanataba mitai na koi wo shita) became a major hit. With its delicate portrait of cohabitation and romance, it struck a chord across generations and pierced the hearts of many viewers. That same year he announced his marriage to actress Nana Komatsu, his frequent co-star.
In 2022 he took on Minamoto no Sanetomo in the NHK taiga drama The 13 Lords of the Shogun, embracing a role weighted with history. In 2024 he announced the birth of his first child. As an actor, a singer, and a family man, his journey keeps widening.
He lists making clothes and watching Yoshimoto Shinkigeki comedy among his hobbies, and counts piano and boxing as his specialties. His younger brothers are the singer Kocchi no Kento and the actor Masaki Sugao—a family with expressive blood running through it.
He began as a Kamen Rider, swept the center of Japanese cinema, and even turned his music into hits. A versatility that could easily have left him a jack-of-all-trades, yet he finishes every piece as first-rate. Remarkable, and somehow approachable. Masaki Suda looks set to remain a formidable talent for a long time to come.