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 | | Subject: Biography Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:13 am | |
|  Toma Ikuta(生田 斗真) was born on October 7, 1984. A Japanese talent artist part of Johnny's Jr. under the supervision of Johnny & Associates. Toma used to be in a variety show for kids called Tensai Terebi kun. Being a member of a then all-children band called Strawberry Parfait, he was popular with the audience. He was then offered an opportunity to join Johnny's Entertainment, together with a fellow bandmate in Strawberry Parfait, Maiku Iida (who is presently the other half of the singing duo, J Boyz). He auditioned, got accepted and began to participate under Johnny's Jr in February 1996. Soon after he was grouped with three of the five members of the Johnny's boy band Arashi. Together, they formed a group called M.A.I.N. With the debut of the three members into Arashi in 1999, Toma was grouped with a Jr. unit named B.I.G. (Bad Image Generation) Soon after, B.I.G. was reduced to just Toma and Tomohisa. In 2002, Hideaki Takizawa, the leader of Johnny's Jr., debuted together with Tsubasa Imai, forming the duo Tackey & Tsubasa. Ikuta was among the top Tokyo juniors at that time, and so the group 4TOPS was formed in order to replace Takizawa and Imai as the leaders of the juniors. The group consisted of 4 former B.I.G members: Ikuta Toma, Yamashita Tomohisa, Jun Hasegawa and Shunsuke Kazama. But having lost one of its members, fans started calling the rest of the team as 3TOPS. 3TOPS continued hosting the show with Jimmy Mackey and KAT-TUN. Toma hosted his own segment, Meitantei Tomasu in Shōnen Club after NEWS and KAT-TUN took over the hosting of the show. Not long after, he and the two remaining members of 3TOPS started working on solo projects, such as dramas and stage plays, and gradually stopped appearing in the variety show. Until then, Toma had appeared in many dramas with different roles, that of a rebel teenager in Kinō Wa Tomo Kyō no Teki (NHK, 2004), a young man who had lost his love in Gekidan Engimono: Otoko no Yume (Fuji TV, 2005), as well as a young enthusiastic police officer in Dekabeya (TBS, 2005). In 2006, Toma played the role of Box, an obsessive-compulsive neat freak, in the manga-turned dramaAkihabara@Deep (TBS, 2006), with fellow 3TOPS member Shunsuke Kazama. He had also appeared as Oribe Junpei, a man out for revenge in the sequel of the drama Hana Yori Dango. Toma had also participated in numerous musical stage plays produced by Johnny's Entertainment, such as Playzone, SHOCK and West Side Story (both the Shonentai and Arashi versions), as well as non-Johnny's Entertainment-produced stage plays (Azumi, Azumi Returns, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona). One of his biggest breakthrough roles on stage was his first leading role in theShinkansen*NEXUS volume 2 stage play "Cat in the Red Boots", as TOMA-sama. The premise of the play was based loosely on his life. The 2007 Fuji TV summer drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, controversial in its gender-bending nature, was perhaps Toma's biggest break in Japanese Entertainment. He has merited him Best Supporting Actor awards in three award-giving bodies, and has also opened more opportunities for him as he started to become one of the most in-demand young actors.
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