Keita Machida

Keita Machida (Japanese: 町田啓太; born July 4, 1990) is a Japanese actor and stage actor signed to LDH JAPAN, known to BL audiences as Kurosawa Yuichi (黒沢優一), the composed, quietly devoted senior colleague whose thoughts drive the premise, in TV Tokyo’s Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (2020) and its sequel film Cherry Magic! THE MOVIE (2022).

Machida was born in Higashiagatsuma, Gunma Prefecture. He practised kendo from elementary through junior high school and reached second dan, then attended Japan Aviation High School in Ishikawa, where he earned aeronautical and land mobile special radio operator licences along with a gas welding certification. He went on to Nippon Sport Science University, and trained at EXPG Tokyo, the performing arts school run by the LDH group.

His career began on stage rather than screen. He passed the third Gekidan EXILE audition in 2010 and formally joined the theatre troupe in January 2011, making his stage debut that same period in the stage adaptation of Rokudenashi Blues as Yoneji Sawamura, a performance during which he ruptured his Achilles tendon. He was briefly selected as a candidate member of the dance and vocal group GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE in mid-2011, but withdrew in February 2012 and returned to Gekidan EXILE to concentrate on acting. He remained a member of the troupe until December 31, 2025, when he and three other members stepped away to work as individual actors; his agency, LDH JAPAN, did not change. He is also represented in South Korea by HB Entertainment.

His screen profile grew steadily through the 2010s, beginning with NHK’s morning drama Hanako and Anne (2014) and the recurring role of Noboru Harada in the HiGH&LOW franchise. Cherry Magic in 2020 proved the turning point for his international recognition: his performance as Kurosawa won him Best Supporting Actor at the 106th Television Drama Academy Awards. The twelve-episode TV Tokyo series and its film sequel both credit Machida as main cast.

He has a substantial body of work well outside BL. He played the swordsman Hijikata Toshizo in NHK’s 2021 taiga drama Reach Beyond the Blue Sky, appeared as Karube Daikichi in Netflix’s Alice in Borderland (2020 and 2022), and led the dramas Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Youshudou (2021) and Teppachi! (2022). His films include Sukima Suki (2015), LDK: Two Loves Under One Roof (2019), Taiyou to Bolero (2022) and 10Dance (2025). GQ Japan named him Breakthrough Actor of the Year in 2022.