Kenichi Matsuyama (松山 ケンイチ, Matsuyama Ken'ichi; born March 5, 1985) is a Japanese actor. He is known for his affinity for strange character roles, and he is best known internationally for playing L in the 2006 films Death Note, Death Note 2: The Last Name, and L: Change the World in 2008. He played the main character Toru Watanabe in the film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood.
His stage name uses the katakana spelling of his first name (ケンイチ) instead of the usual kanji (研一).
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Early career
In 2000 he entered Aomori Prefectural Ominato High School. While there, he debuted as a model, in 2001, for PARCO, after winning the Grand Prix "New Style Audition", an event in colaboration with the agency Horipro. from among 16,572 applicants. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School.
Matsuyama made his acting debut in the television series Gokusen in 2002.
He made his first film appearance in Bright Future in 2003.
He starred in the film Winning Pass in 2004, a movie with its main character modeled after real–life wheelchair basketball player Kohei Kamimura.
