Yui Aragaki

Yui Aragaki (新垣 結衣) is a Japanese actress, model, singer and occasional radio show host.

She has been selected several times as the most desired girlfriend and the most desired female celebrity face in Oricon's yearly survey.

She also invited as a host of 54th Japan Record Awards.

She was invited as a judge in 58th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

Outside acting she also released her first album, Sora, and the single "Heavenly Days", a song from Koizora.

"Memories", the theme song for Tokyo Serendipity, was included in her debut album.

She also performed at Budokan.

She was invited as a judge again in 67th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

She was born on June 11, 1988, in Naha, Okinawa.

She is the younger of two siblings.

After seeing an audition notice for the junior fashion magazine Nicola (ニコラ), she applied for it and won the Grand Prix award for the audition.

In 2001, at the age of 13, she began her Nicola modelling career and was very well received as a Nicola model, having set a record for appearing on cover for 15 times.

One of her co-models, actress Enomoto Ayako, gave her the nickname 'Gakky' as a take on her surname.

She moved to Tokyo at 15 and enrolled at Horikoshi High School famous for being the academic base of many famous celebrities including Seiko Matsuda.

In 2004, she decided to put her Nicola career on hold and expand her career path into gravure and acting, and she also appeared in variety shows and commercials, with her Pocky commercials being the most popular.

A year later, she officially graduated from Nicola.

Even so, she still appears in the magazine occasionally.

She made her acting debut in Shibuya in 2005.

She also became quite popular as in the Pocky commercials.

In 2005, Aragaki took up a role in the TBS drama, Dragon Zakura, starring alongside Japanese idols like Tomohisa Yamashita and Masami Nagasawa.

This marked a breakthrough in her acting career.

Since then, she has been cast in many other dramas, like My Boss, My Hero and Gal Circle.

She also expanded into voice acting in 2006 as well as movies as of 2007.

Other sources report that the abysmal reactions to her vocals lead to stress.

She has continued acting for the small and big screen since, however, and released more music.

She also starred in the 2007 tragic love story movie hit Koizora, for which she won her first award, the Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Newcomer.

Currently, she has 5 newcomer awards.

Her tremendous number of movie shoots as well as the preparation for her debut album resulted in her suffering from work-related stress in 2007.

Aragaki won the Film prize at the 45th Golden Arrow Awards in 2008.

She also became a host for the radio program Girls Locks which lasted between 2010 and 2012.

At the age of 15, Aragaki moved to Tokyo and enrolled in Horikoshi High School, a private high school popular for being attended by many Japanese celebrities.

She was also the co-hosts for popular radio program Girls Locks in 2010–2012.

In 2012–2013, She acted with Masato Sakai in comedy hit Legal High.

In 2014, she tried the role of mother for her first time in film Twilight Sasarasaya.

In 2016, she acted an ideal wife in The Full-Time Wife Escapist, raised a social topic in Japan.

She also performed in "koi dance" as ending of the drama, become viral in Japan.

In 2017, Aragaki Yui acted as Masako Matsushita in Kizuna : hashire kiseki no kouma also known as Ties: A Miraculous Colt.

It was broadcast on NHK, and the story is about she raising the little ponies after the earthquake with her father.

During the same year in July, Code Blue Season 3 that she had participated in has finally released after 7 years broadcasting the second season.

In October, Aragaaki Yui played as Tamako Tomita in Mixed Doubles directed by Junichi Ishikawa.