Ikuta Toma

Ikuta Toma used to be in a variety show for kids called Tensai Terebi kun. Being a member of a then all-children band called Strawberry Parfait, he was popular with the audience. He was then offered an opportunity to join Johnny's Entertainment, together with a fellow bandmate in Strawberry Parfait, Mai-kun Iida (who is presently the other half of the singing duo, J Boyz). He auditioned, got accepted and began to participate under Johnny's Jr in February 1996.

Soon after he was grouped with three of the five members of the Johnny's boy band Arashi. Together, they formed a group called M.A.I.N., a name that was formed from the initial of each member's family name: Jun Matsumoto, Masaki Aiba, Toma Ikuta, and Kazunari Ninomiya.

With the debut of the three members into Arashi in 1999, Toma was grouped with a Jr. unit named B.I.G. (Bad Image Generation), along with ten other popular Juniors of that time, which included Koki Tanaka of KAT-TUN. Tomohisa Yamashita of NEWS, with whom Toma is still very good friends with, had also been part of that group. Soon after, B.I.G. was reduced to just Toma and Tomohisa.

In 2002, Hideaki Takizawa, the leader of Johnny's Jr., debuted together with Tsubasa Imai, forming the duo Tackey & Tsubasa. Ikuta was among the top Tokyo juniors at that time, and so the group4TOPS was formed in order to replace Takizawa and Imai as the leaders of the juniors. The group consisted of 4 former B.I.G members: Ikuta Toma, Yamashita Tomohisa, Jun Hasegawa andShunsuke Kazama. The graduation ceremony of Takizawa and Imai, which also served as the duo's debut concert, formally inducted the four as the leaders of Johnny's Jrs., whose job was to host the variety show The Shōnen Club (ザ少年倶楽部 Za Shōnen Kurabu^?).

In September 2003, the temporary group NEWS was formed, with Yamashita Tomohisa as the leader. While it was initially meant to only cheer for Japan's Women Volleyball Team, this group was formally debut. Having lost one of its members, fans started calling the rest of the team as 3TOPS. 3TOPS continued hosting the show with Jimmy Mackey and KAT-TUN. Toma hosted his own segment, Meitantei Tomasu in Shōnen Club after NEWS and KAT-TUN took over the hosting of the show. Not long after, he and the two remaining members of 3TOPS started working on solo projects, such as dramas and stage plays, and gradually stopped appearing in the variety show.

Until then, Toma had appeared in many dramas with different roles, that of a rebel teenager in Kinō Wa Tomo Kyō no Teki (NHK, 2004), a young man who had lost his love in Gekidan Engimono: Otoko no Yume (Fuji TV, 2005), as well as a young enthusiastic police officer in Dekabeya (TBS, 2005). In 2006, Toma played the role of Box, an obsessive-compulsive neat freak, in the manga-turned dramaAkihabara@Deep (TBS, 2006), with fellow 3TOPS member Shunsuke Kazama. He had also appeared as Oribe Junpei, a man out for revenge in the sequel of the drama Hana Yori Dango.

Toma had also participated in numerous musical stage plays produced by Johnny's Entertainment, such as Playzone, SHOCK and West Side Story (both the Shonentai and Arashi versions), as well as non-Johnny's Entertainment-produced stage plays (Azumi, Azumi Returns, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona). One of his biggest breakthrough roles on stage was his first leading role in theShinkansen*NEXUS volume 2 stage play "Cat in the Red Boots", as TOMA-sama. The premise of the play was based loosely on his life.

Profile

1. Name:  生田斗真
2. Name (romaji): Ikuta Toma
3. Nicknames: Tomasu, Toma-chan
4. Profession: Actor and singer
5. Birthdate: 1984-Oct-07
6. Birthplace: Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan
7. Height: 173cm
8. Weight: 58kg
9. Star sign: Libra
10. Blood type: A
11. Talent agency: Johnny's Entertainment

TV Shows

1. Kyuukei no Kouya (Fuji TV, 2010)
2. Unubore Deka (TBS, 2010)
3. Majo Saiban (Fuji TV, 2009)
4. Voice as Ishimatsu Ryosuke (Fuji TV, 2009)
5. Hanazakari no Kimitachi e SP as Nakatsu Shuichi (Fuji TV, 2008)
6. Maou as Serizawa Naoto (TBS, 2008)
7. Hachimitsu to Clover as Takemoto Yuta (Fuji TV, 2008)
8. Hanazakari no Kimitachi e as Nakatsu Shuichi (Fuji TV, 2007)
9. Hana Yori Dango 2 as Oribe Junpei (TBS, 2007, ep1)
10. Akihabara@Deep as Box (TBS, 2006)
11. Gekidan Engimono Otoko no Yume as Yamazaki (Fuji TV, 2006)
12. Asuka e, Soshite Mada Minu Ko e as Sawamura Kazuya (Fuji TV, 2005)
13. Dekabeya as Ochi Yukio (TV Asahi, 2005)
14. Gekidan Engimono Nemureru Mori no Shitai as Eiji (Fuji TV, 2005)
15. Engimono America as Hachida (Fuji TV, 2002)
16. Hito ni Yasashiku as Yusuke (Fuji TV, 2002, ep5)
17. Neverland as Seto Osamu (TBS, 2002)
18. Nekketsu Ren-ai Dou (NTV, 1999)
19. Love and Peace as Horiguchi Yohei (NTV, 1998)
20. Agri (NHK, 1997)