Biography

Masanobu Ando (安藤 政信, Andō Masanobu, born May 19, 1975 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese actor and director. For his second film, in 1996, he won the Film Academy of Japan's Best New Actor Award, starring in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return. Ando has extensive experience in both Japanese television drama and film and has played a large variety of different roles: mentally challenged (Innocent World), bank robber (Space Travelers, Drive), doctor (Transparent), ninja and samurai (Red Shadow), even a corpse (Monday). Out of all of Ando's characters, he is best known for his role as Kazuo Kiriyama, the heartless, psychopathic killer in the controversial film, Battle Royale (2000). He also played an art forger in the low-budget Battle Royale parody Tokyo 10+01 (2003).