Originally from Japan, Shin Koyamada is an American actor, producer, philanthropist and entrepreneur. At age of 18 in 2000, Koyamada left everything behind in Japan and moved to Hollywood alone, not knowing
anyone, having no place to stay, and not knowing how to speak English, to make his American dreams come true.

Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Koyamada became best known to global audiences after his co-starring debut role in the Warner Bros. blockbuster Tom Cruise film “The Last Samurai”, with a worldwide box office of $456 million, earning it nominations for several awards, including four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two National Board of Review Awards. Koyamada became first Japanese to star in the
Disney Channel worldwide hit TV movie “Wendy Wu Homecoming Warrior”, which had over 5.7 million viewers at its premiere, making it one of the highest viewed Disney Channel movies in the United States and the highest rated kid’s channel in Europe, U.K. and Japan. Since then, Koyamada has appeared in many award winning American movies and television shows since his Hollywood debut in 2003.

Since 2004, Koyamada became well known as a long-time advocate to global philanthropic causes supporting many international NGOs around the world. In March 2008, Koyamada cofounded and chairs KIF (Koyamada International Foundation), a United States 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with its focus to improve quality of people’s life by empowering global youth and women to reach their full potential and by providing humanitarian aid to promote global peace and sustainable development. In partnerships with national and local governments, international NGOs, universities, high schools, multinational corporations and nonprofits globally at KIF, he has outreached and inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the globe dedicated to support its 6 core global causes such as fostering youth leadership, empowering girls and women, assisting disaster relief, building people-to-people connections, ending extreme poverty and advancing global goals. KIF has national chapters in different continents and continues to expand its presence around the world. KIF’s current global partners with international NGOs include Sister Cities International (SCI), Junior Chamber International (JCI), Associations of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) to expand its causes in the international communities around the world.

In 2017, Koyamada historically became the first Japanese to be elected as Sister Cities International (SCI) national board member, the world’s largest citizen diplomacy network NGO founded by U.S. President Dwight
D. Eisenhower in 1956, representing more than 32,000 volunteers and 570 U.S. community members (cities, counties and states) with 2,300 sister partnerships in 150 countries on 6 continents. As an active national board member, Koyamada focuses on binational partnership programs in sister cities and supports local sister cities programs that boast exchanges in arts and culture, business and trade, youth and education, and community development that not only bring them friendship, but help them to tackle the world’s most pressing issues at the local level.

As an entrepreneur, Koyamada is Chairman and CEO of Shinca Group founded in 2005, with its main businesses in entertainment and international consulting. Under his leadership, the company operates Shinca Entertainment, an American producer of Hollywood motion picture films, shows, comic books and video games. It also manages Shinca Enterprise, an international consulting firm, specialized in business
matchmaking globally with a wide range of corporate clients from a Fortune Global 500 company to a startup company in various business sectors such as technology, agriculture, retails, energy, entertainment and tourism.

Koyamada was born in Okayama, Japan in 1982 and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Koyamada holds several black belts in Japanese and Korean martial arts, and won several United States national championships in Chinese martial arts. Koyamada is bilingual in Japanese and English. Koyamada is married to Colombian-
American wife and TED Talk Speaker Nia Lyte. As a role model to the next generation, Koyamada continues to promote United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals around the world and take a global leadership for a sustainable world.