Shirota Yu (Birth name: Yu Shirota Fernandez) is a Japanese-Spanish actor, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live-action adaption of Hana-Kimi, Kunimitsu Tezuka in the Prince of Tennis Musicals and as Kei Shinjo in Rookies. In 2009, he was named one of the most promising actors and actresses, placing 8th in a poll conducted by Oricon. He is a former member of the Watanabe Entertainment group, D-BOYS.
Shirota lived in Barcelona, Spain from when he was three to about seven years. He returned to Japan for elementary school and can still speak Spanish in ordinary conversation. He attended high school at Horikoshi High along with NEWS member Yamashita Tomohisa, WaT’s Teppei Koike, Japanese actor and singer Ikuta Toma and KAT-TUN’s Akanishi Jin and Tanaka Koki.
According to Shirota, when he was little, his family liked to sing songs so that he would borrow his older sister’s keyboard, while his mother taught him piano — thus spawned Shirota’s love for composing. He composed his first piece when he was in the fourth grade, titled “The Tear”.
From 2014-2016 he sang the role of the ‘Angel of Death’ in the musical production of ‘Elisabeth’ at Takarazuka Revue – for this performance he received wide acclaim and several awards.