David Sakurai (Copenhagen, 19 July 1979) is a Danish-Japanese actor, director, scriptwriter and martial artist.

Biography

Born in Copenhagen to a Japanese father and a Danish mother and raised in Frederiksværk, Sakurai has a brother named Kristoffer, who is a former dancer. He was interested in film-making from a young age and at the age of 18 moved to Japan, where he also learned acting. He played smaller roles in theatre and in indie films, like Tokyo G.P. in 2001 and Scarlet Runaway in 2005.

He returned to Denmark in 2008, mainly because he wanted to work with talented new directors and in his native tongue. Here he continued training under the Danish Actors' Association. He played one of his first leading roles in Eastern Army. He worked with Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Van Zandt and Hans Petter Moland, among others.

In 2012 he starred in Hungarian dark romantic comedy Liza, the Fox-Fairy, which won the Grand Prize at Portuguese film festival Fantasporto in 2015.

He has trained in Wing Chun and Muay Thai, among other martial art styles.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.