Nagasawa Masami, born in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese actress. She is also known as "Ma-chan" or, as Yamashita Tomohisa calls her, "Maa-tan". On her radio show, she introduces herself as "Gasawa", a nickname chosen by fans. She is the daughter of Nagasawa Kazuaki, the former manager of the J. League team Jubilo Iwata; she was born on the season when they won their first league championship.

In 2002, her appearance in the Nabisco CM earned her the title of "The Pretty Girl from the Nabisco CM" in magazines and TV shows, as her name was not yet well-known at the time.
In 2003, she had her very first leading role in the movie, Robokon and Masami commented that it was this movie that first brought out her acting skills and that it remains one of her favourite works to this day.

In 2004, Masami starred as the heroine of the story, a teenage girl who died of leukemia, in the big hit movie, Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World. The movie was a box office hit in Japan, earning 8.5 billion Yen in total. It was in this movie that she decided to shave off all her hair to accommodate her role as a leukemia patient. Her outstanding performance in this movie gave her recognition as an actress and earned her numerous awards including the Best Supporting Actress Prize (the youngest ever) in the 28th Japanese Academy Awards.

Nagasawa graduated from Horikoshi High School, which also counts among alumni performers like Hamasaki Ayumi, Haruka Ayase, Ueto Aya, Matsumoto Jun, Yuya Tegoshi, Yamashita Tomohisa, Toma Ikuta and Koki Tanaka.
For three consecutive years since 2005, she has been the cover girl for Toho Calendar, which has a history of over 50 years.

In April 2007, she co-starred with Yamashita Tomohisa for the second time in the fantasy love comedy, Proposal Daisakusen (first time was in Dragon Zakura), featuring the former model Eikura Nana. The show enjoyed high ratings, and the cast also swept the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix Awards for Spring of 2007, winning in all 5 categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Drama.

In summer 2007, Masami was ranked 9th in 2007 Most Influential People In Japan and was the only female in the ranking. The order is as follows: Takuya Kimura, Takeshi Kitano, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Monta Mino, Sanma Akashiya, Shingo Katori, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Nagasawa Masami, Masahiro Nakai, according to magazine Flash.

(Source: Wikipedia) Edit Biography