Nao

Nao's career started young — 15 years old, working locally in Fukuoka — before she made the kind of move that defines a lot of Japanese entertainers' trajectories: Tokyo, at 20, with a name change not far behind (Wikipedia). From roughly 2015 to 2017, she performed as Nao Honda, then shed the surname and reintroduced herself simply as Nao. Whether that shift was purely professional or carried some personal significance, she hasn't said publicly. On the film side, her two most documented roles place her squarely in genre-spanning territory. She appeared in Your Turn to Kill: The Movie in 2021, a thriller adaptation that drew on the popularity of its source television series (Wikipedia). Then came The Last 10 Years in 2022 — a romantic drama in which she plays Fujisaki Sanae in a supporting capacity — and that film, which centers on a terminally ill protagonist and the relationship that defines his final decade, is the kind of project that tends to attract performers who want to be taken seriously as dramatic actors. Her choice to take a supporting role rather than wait for a lead says something, though I'm not entirely sure what. Beyond acting, Nao has worked as a voice actress, adding another dimension to a career that already crosses modeling, live-action film, and television (TMDB). She's currently affiliated with the talent agency Irving. An extensive, publicly available filmography hasn't been compiled in major sources as of this writing, which means her full output — especially in television — is likely broader than what's captured here.