Akira Kamiya

Early life

Kamiya was born in Yokohama. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Shiba Commercial High School and became a freelancer after being affiliated with Theatre Echo, Aoni Production, Production Baobab, Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society and Ups. Kamiya then founded Saeba Shoji, a talent agency.

Background

His father ran a furniture manufacturing factory, but it suddenly closed and his parents divorced. After that, Kamiya's mother raised him and his brother. As a result of his mother's search for work, he attended many schools over the years, from Aoki Elementary School in Yokohama to Higashidai Elementary School in Tsurumi and Aioi elementary school in Ota-ku, Tokyo. The presence of actor Shoichi Ozawa as the eldest of Aioi Ko led Kamiya on the road to drama.

After that, he entered the Tokyo Metropolitan Tateshiba Commercial High School via Misono Junior High School. Kamiya's friend invited him to join the drama club, saying that, "I think Kamiya has a good voice." At that time, it was more difficult to become an actor than previously and difficult to advance in the field. Kamiya told his mother, "I want to be an actor. I will do my best because it is the path I chose myself." Later, he recalled, "If [I] were [my] mother, [I] might have stopped crying." After graduating from high school, he joined the amateur theater company Kanza in Yokohama.