Hiroyuki ikeuchi bio biography

“I had a complex when I was younger,” reveals actor Hiroyuki Ikeuchi during our recent interview at the Weekend Garage Tokyo café in Daikanyama. Born to a Salvadoran mother and a Japanese father, he grew up in the small seaside town of Hitachinaka in Ibaraki.

“We lived in a very rural area and there were no other children like me.

It felt like people were often staring at me, which made me feel self-conscious. I tried to hide my foreignness and appear as Japanese as possible.

Hiroyuki ikeuchi

I even threw away letters about open days at school because I didn’t want other children to see that my mother looked different.”

Today, however, Ikeuchi is proud of his mixed heritage. He grew to feel more comfortable with his racial identity, particularly after he was scouted for stardom as a teen thanks to his distinctive, exotic features and started working as a model in Tokyo.

“Moving to the capital opened up my eyes to a new world,” says the actor.

“I was actually visiti