Maki Horikita

Japanese former actress (born 1988)

Maki Horikita (堀北 真希) is a Japanese former actress. During her career from 2003 until 2017, she starred in numerous Japanese television dramas, television and magazine advertisements, and movies, including roles in Nobuta wo Produce, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e and Umechan Sensei.

Horikita was born on October 6, 1988, in Kiyose, Tokyo, Japan. She is the eldest of three daughters. Considered a tomboy in her childhood, Horikita enjoyed playing basketball and baseball. She was the vice captain of their basketball club in junior high.

Apart from modeling for photobooks, Horikita has appeared in magazines and television advertisements. She is best remembered for her television commercials for Fujifilm (where she appeared alongside Japanese idol Tomoya Nagase) and Lotte. She is also a staple image endorser for Suntory and NTT DoCoMo. In 2008, Nihon Monitor recognized Horikita as one of Japan's top endorsers during its annual Most Popular Personality in TV CMs.

Horikita had been cast in several drama series and movies since 2003 but her roles in Densha Otoko and Nobuta wo Produce became her breakthrough performances. Her promising portrayal of the titular character in Nobuta wo Produce won her a Best Supporting Actress award from Japan's Television Academy Awards. It was also around this time that she won the Newcomer Award from Japan Academy Awards for her role as a student apprentice in Always: Sunset on Third Street. In the following year, she won her second Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Kurosagi. Months later, she was given the lead role for Teppan Shoujo Akane!! and the role of a bully who is behind a class rebellion in Seito Shokun! where she co starred with her agency senior Rina Uchiyama. She was also cast in the horror movie, One Missed Call: Final, the last installment of the One Missed Call franchise with agency colleague and best friend Meisa Kuroki and South Korean actor Jang Keun suk. Soon after, Horikita was awarded her first Best Actress award for her role as Mizuki Ashiya in the Japanese drama adaptation of the gender bender manga Hana Kimi, or Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. In the same year that Hana Kimi was filmed, Horikita also starred in the Taiga drama Atsuhime with Aoi Miyazaki. In the same year, she played the lead character who has multiple personality disorder in the suspense movie Tokyo Shōnen and reprised her role as a student apprentice in Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi, the sequel to her breakthrough movie. Horikita's exceptional work was recognized by Vogue Nippon which identified her as one of the eleven Women of the Year in 2007. On October of the following year, she was once again seen on television opposite Yuzu's lead vocalist Yujin Kitagawa, leading the cast of Fuji TV's golden time slot in the drama Innocent Love. Towards the end of the year, she had been cast as Naomi, the female protagonist of Dareka ga Watashi ni Kiss wo Shite or DareKiss (based on Gabrielle Zevin's popular novel, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac) a Hollywood Japan collaboration film directed by internationally acclaimed director and self confessed Japanese culture fanatic Hans Canosa. It was revealed that one third of her lines in the movie were in English. As soon as the filming for DareKiss ended, Horikita had gone on to appear in two television dramas: Atashinchi no Danshi in 2009 as an adoptive mother of six young men (played by Jun Kaname and Mukai Osamu among others) and Tokujo Kabachi!! in 2010 as an administrative scrivener opposite Arashi's Sho Sakurai. In January 2011, Horikita starred in the movie adaptation of Into the White Night, a widely read novel that was adapted into a television drama in 2006 starring Haruka Ayase and Takayuki Yamada. Produced by WOWOW FILMS, the movie was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama category. In 2012, Horikita was offered to lead the cast of an NHK asadora named Umechan Sensei The morning drama featured Horikita as Umeko Shimomura in her carefree teenage years until she blossomed into a dependable town doctor during the Showa era. For the first time in nine years, NHK recorded an average audience rating past 20% for an asadora time slot when Umechan Sensei garnered an average audience rating of 20.7%. At the end of 2012, Horikita made her stage debut in a performance of Joan of Arc. Horikita had also ventured into voice acting, debuting as an anime voice actress for one of the characters in Nobita and the Green Giant Legend 2008. Her highly featured project as a voice actress was for Professor Layton in which she provided the voice of the main character Luke. In early 2009, she also dubbed a character from the Belgian 3D animated movie Nat's Space Adventure 3D/Fly Me to the Moon. She dubbed the voice of the protagonist who is a young male fly who was determined to explore outer space.

On 22 August 2015 Horikita's management agency announced that she had married actor Koji Yamamoto earlier that day. The couple became close in May 2015 when playing the role of lovers in the theatrical production Arashi ga Oka (Wuthering Heights) and had commenced dating in June. On June 20, 2016, she announced her pregnancy. She gave birth to her first child in December 2016. On February 28, 2017, she announced her retirement from the entertainment industry.

YearAwardCategoryNotable WorksResultRef. 2005 27th Yokohama Film Festival Best New Talent Always: Sunset on Third Street 2006 47th Television Drama Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress Nobuta wo Produce 30th Elan d'or Awards Newcomer Award Herself 10th Internet Movie Awards Best Newcomer Always: Sunset on Third Street 15th TV Life Annual Drama Awards Best Supporting ActressNobuta wo Produce TV Navi Drama Awards Best Newcomer 29th Japan Academy Film Prize Rookie of the Year Always: Sunset on Third Street 43rd Golden Arrow Award Newcomer Award Herself 48th Blue Ribbon AwardsBest Supporting Actress Always: Sunset on Third Street 49th Television Drama Academy Awards Kurosagi MTV Student Voice Awards Best Teen Actress Herself 2007 54th Television Drama Academy Awards Best Actress Hanazakari no Kimitachi E 4th Beauty Week Award The Best of BeautyHerself Vogue Nippon Awards Women of the Year 2008 17th TV Life AwardsBest ActressHanazakari no Kimitachi E 11th Nikkan Sports Annual Drama Grand Prix 31st Japan Academy Film Prize Best Supporting Actress Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 5th Cotton USA Awards Miss Cotton USAHerself 19th Japan Best Jewellery Wearer Awards Best Jewellery Wearer 2009 Vogue Nippon Awards Best Leathernist Gold Dream Awards Culture & Entertainment Category 2012 16th Nikkan Sports Annual Drama Grand PrixBest ActressUmechan Sensei 16th Nikkan Sports Spring Drama Grand Prix 16th Nikkan Sports Summer Drama Grand Prix 74th Television Drama Academy Awards Fountain Pen Best Coordinate Award 2012 Fountain Pen Best Coordinate AwardHerself 2013 2nd Best Beautist Awards Actress Category