Tsuyoshi Kusanagi

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is a Japanese actor, vocalist, and television presenter who gained widespread recognition as a member of SMAP, one of Asia's most commercially successful musical groups. Born on July 9, 1974, in Seiyo, located within Ehime Prefecture, Japan, he was raised in Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. Over the course of his career, he has established himself as a prominent figure across the Japanese entertainment industry through his musical releases, variety show appearances, and film roles.

Kusanagi began his path toward a professional entertainment career in 1987 at the age of thirteen when he auditioned for the talent agency Johnny & Associates. Later that autumn, he was integrated into a twenty-member performance ensemble named The Skate Boys, who originally acted as background dancers for the group Hikaru Genji. In April 1988, producer Johnny Kitagawa selected Kusanagi alongside five other members from the lineup to form the boy band SMAP.

Throughout his tenure with SMAP, Kusanagi spent two decades co-hosting the weekly television variety program SMAP×SMAP alongside his bandmates. In 2001, he began hosting his own variety show titled Chonangang on Fuji TV. Intending to expand his career into South Korea, he learned the Korean language and adopted the Korean stage identity of Chonangang, which he incorporated into SMAP concert performances and single releases. The show ran for eight years and expanded its focus to include interviews with prominent South Korean entertainment figures, such as Lee Min-ho, as well as interviews with former South Korean Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak for TBS.

In addition to his television work and musical performances, Kusanagi built a substantial acting filmography. He starred in the lead role for the feature film Yomigaeri, which made its public debut in Japan in January 2003. The following year, he starred in the Japanese-produced, Korean-language feature The Hotel Venus, which opened in Japanese theaters in March 2004 and was subsequently presented at the Moscow International Film Festival in June 2004.

In April 2009, Kusanagi was arrested in the Akasaka area of Minato, Tokyo, on suspicion of public indecency. Following a public apology during a press conference with his legal counsel the next day, prosecutors elected not to indict him. After taking a one-month break from public appearances, he resumed filming for SMAP×SMAP in May 2009. One year after SMAP officially dissolved, Kusanagi joined former band members Shingo Katori and Goro Inagaki to launch a new group known as Atarashii Chizu. On December 30, 2020, he announced his marriage.

Kusanagi achieved major critical success in 2020 for his performance in Eiji Uchida's drama Midnight Swan, playing Nagisa, a transgender nightclub worker. The feature received top honors including Picture of the Year, while Kusanagi earned the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.