Mandy Sekiguchi

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Mandy Sekiguchi
関口 メンディー
Born (1991-01-25) 25 January 1991 (age 30)
New Jersey, United States
NationalityJapanese American
Other names
  • Mandy
  • Monsta Twiggz
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationNippon Sport Science University
OccupationRapper, dancer
Years active2011–present
EmployerLDH
Notable credit(s)
Height182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Websitewww.ldh.co.jp/eng/management/generations_sekiguchi/

Mandy Sekiguchi (関口 メンディー; Sekiguchi Mendi, born January 25, 1991, in New Jersey, United States) is an American-Japanese dancer, rapper, actor and a member of J-Pop groups Generations from Exile Tribe, Exile and Honest Boyz.[1]

Sekiguchi is represented with LDH. His mother is Japanese and his father is Nigerian.

Early life[]

Mandy Sekiguchi was born on January 25, 1991, in New Jersey, United States and grew up in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Even though he was born outside of Japan, he was raised monolingual in Japanese and only started to study English later on in his career. He started playing baseball at the age of 6 and practiced it till his third year in high school.[2]

Career[]

In April 2011, Mandy participated in the Exile Professional Gym (EXPG) audition produced by Hiro, and he was selected as a member of Generations from Exile Tribe.[3]

In April 2012, he became an official member of Generations and debuted in November of the same year.

Mandy advanced into acting for the first time in April 2014, when he was selected as a cast member of Fuji TV's late night program Wow.[4] On April 27, 2014, Mandy passed the Exile Performer Battle Audition Final in Nippon Budoukan and became a member of Exile.[5][6][7] In May of the same year, he made his stage debut in the stage play Dance Earth Project "Changes" while also joining the coed-group Dance Earth Party for one year.[8][9]

On January 26, 2015, members of Sekiguchi MANDY and GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE were appointed as "Hong Kong Tourism Goodwill Ambassadors" by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.[10] On 15 April 2016, he became a member of the hip-hop unit Honest Boyz. He took on the position of MC in the group, calling himself simply Mandy (stylized as MANDY). This marked the first time he would use his vocals in a group.[11]

In August 2017, Mandy produced the 24karats×KANGOL collaboration collection of designer hats. 24karats is a fashion brand developed by LDH while KANGOL was founded in 1938 as a British traditional beret brand which established itself as a symbol of the art scene.[12] Additionally, he made his acting debut in LDH's movie universe HiGH & LOW in the same year.

On June 5, 2018, he threw the first pitch at the opening ceremony of the Giants vs Rakuten baseball game, held at Tokyo Dome.[2] His appearance garnered great public attention since the speed of his pitch reached 133 km/h, the fastest thrown by an entertainer at that time. His record was broken by Golden Bomber's Kenji Darvish later on (135 km/h) and both developed a comedic rivalry.[13] On August 31, Sanrio announced they would produce a new character, Hello Mandy, based on Mandy Sekiguchi. The character is designed with an "M" lavaliere on a necklace and one of Mandy's most familiar hairstyles.[14]

In January 2019, Mandy was chosen as a representative for the promotion of the American movie Aquaman in Japan.[15][16] On February 14, he attended the PRINCE OF LEGEND PREMIUM LIVE SHOW, a fan-meeting with the whole Prince of Legend cast, at Yokohama Arena.[17][18] On March 18, Mandy was invited to throw another first pitch at the opening ceremony of the Giants vs Mariners baseball game at Tokyo Dome. However, he wasn't able to exceed his previous record.[19][13] On June 4, it was announced that Hello Mandy won the No. 1 prize in the collaboration category of the Sanrio Character Award, an award based on an annual popularity voting.[20][21] On July 17, Generations from Exile Tribe released the single "Brand New Story". It included "Control Myself" as a B-side track, being the group's first original English song and also the first one to feature Mandy as a rapper. On September 9, it was announced that Mandy would be part of the cast for the live-action series of the manga Motokare Mania (モトカレマニア; Ex-Boyfriend Mania).[22] This would be the first time that he will appear in a prime time drama.

Participating groups[]

Name Period of time
Generations from Exile Tribe April 2011 –
Exile April 2014 –
®ag Pound 2015 –
Honest Boyz April 2016 –

Filmography[]

For the group's filmography, see Generations from Exile Tribe § Filmography.

TV programmes[]

Year Title Network Notes Ref.
2013-2015 Kyuukyoku no Otoko wa Dareda? Saikyou Supoutsu Danshi Choujou Kessen TBS Appeared in the second to fifth and seventh Annual Meeting Victory
2014 Wow Fuji TV [4]
Viking Fuji TV [23]
2016 Kyuukyoku no Otoko wa Dareda? Saikyou Supoutsu Danshi moto Ni~Tsu Choujou Kessen! TBS New Year's special [24]

Stage[]

Year Title Role
2014 Dance Earth: Changes Kuruma

TV dramas[]

Year Title Network Role Notes Ref.
2016 Night Hero Naoto TV Tokyo himself Episode 5; ending dance [25]
2018 Prince of Legend NTV Gabriel Sasazuka [26][27][28]
2019 Secret x Warrior Phantomirage TV Tokyo Phandy [29]
Ex-Boyfriend Mania (モトカレマニア) Fuji TV Tadafumi Shirai [30][31][32]

Web Dramas[]

Year Title Network Role Ref.
2018 Happy-Go-Lucky! GYAO! Manns [33]

Movies[]

Year Title Role Ref.
2017 High & Low The movie 2 End Of Sky Pho
High & Low The movie 3 Final Mission
2019 Prince of Legend Gabriel Sasazuka [34][35][36]

Live[]

Year Title Ref.
2018 27th Tokyo Girls Collection 2018 AUTUMN / WINTER [34]
2019 PRINCE OF LEGEND PREMIUM LIVE SHOW [17][18]
28th Tokyo Girls Collection 2019 SPRING / SUMMER [37][38]

Game[]

Year Title Role Notes
2019 Prince Of Legend Love Royale Gabriel Sasazuka
  • Released on March 25
  • Available on iOS / Android

Advertisements[]

Year Title Ref.
2014 AOYAMA PRESTIGE TECHNOLOGY "Soul Man" [39]
2015 Daiichi Kosho Company Live DAM Stadium
Bandai Namco Entertainment Taiko no Tatsujin [40]
2016 SoftBank "Sponavi Live" [41]
2018 Nissin "Cup Noodle"
2019 NTT Docomo × RAG POUND [42][43]
Fendi "BaguetteFriendsForever" [44]

Music videos[]

Year Group Title Ref.
2011 Sandaime J Soul Brothers Fighters
2018 CrazyBoy Private Party
Red Soul Blue Dragon [45]
2019 Okamoto's Dancing Boy [46]

Work[]

Character[]

References[]

  1. ^ "EXILE" (in Japanese). LDH. Retrieved 7 Feb 2017.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "関口メンディー、初の始球式で圧巻の133キロ「リベンジして140キロ投げたい！」". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  3. ^ Shūkan Exile (in Japanese). 2 Apr 2012. Tokyo Broadcasting System.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "GENERATIONS関口メンディーが演技初挑戦 白濱亜嵐の芝居にビビった". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  5. ^ "ＥＸＩＬＥ新メンバー５人決定！ＨＩＲＯ「未来イメージして選んだ」 - スポニチ Sponichi Annex 芸能". スポニチ Sponichi Annex (in Japanese). 7 April 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  6. ^ "EXILE新パフォーマー決定 関口メンディー・白濱亜嵐ら5人加入". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  7. ^ "EXILE新メンバー、喜びと意気込み語る 関口メンディー「号泣した」". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  8. ^ ""EXILE加入"関口メンディー、自己紹介で大照れ「まだ実感ない」". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  9. ^ "関口メンディー、舞台メイクが「アジャ」そっくり 本人も苦笑い". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  10. ^ "GENERATIONS、EXILEから大役引き継ぐ「架け橋になりたい」 - モデルプレス". モデルプレス - ライフスタイル・ファッションエンタメニュース (in Japanese).
  11. ^ "EXILE NAOTO、ラップに初挑戦". Oricon News (in Japanese). Oricon. 15 Apr 2016. Retrieved 7 Feb 2017.
  12. ^ "関口メンディーがプロデュース「24karats×KANGOL」コラボ 佐野玲於らがモデルに". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b "関口メンディー、目指すは"キング・オブ・始球式" ライバル・樽美酒と一緒に練習も". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  14. ^ "関口メンディー、サンリオでキャラクター化「HelloMandy」に 商品化も決定". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  15. ^ "関口メンディー、イルカとふれあい『アクアマン』気分満喫". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  16. ^ "28歳になった関口メンディー、「不得意なことも克服していきたい」". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b "鈴木伸之、"セレブ王子"片寄涼太に「抱かれてもいい」 王子たちがべた褒め合戦". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b "片寄涼太＆佐野玲於らイケメン王子が"胸キュン"ライブ「行くよ、僕のプリンセス」". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  19. ^ "関口メンディー、始球式芸能人最速奪還ならず「ゴメンディー！」 原監督激励に緊張". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
  20. ^ "関口メンディー×サンリオのハローメンディー『サンリオキャラ大賞』参加へ". ORICON NEWS. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  21. ^ "関口メンディー Mandy Sekiguchi on Instagram: "サンリオキャラクター大賞コラボ部門でハローメンディーが第1位になりました