Yu Shirota (城田 優, Shirota Yū?), born December 26, 1985, is a Japanese-Spanish actor, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live-action adaption of Hana-Kimi, Kunimitsu Tezuka in the Prince of Tennis Musicals and as Kei Shinjo in Rookies. In 2009, Shirota Yu was named one of the most promising actors and actresses, placing 8th in a poll conducted by Oricon. Shirota Yu is a former member of the Watanabe Entertainment group, D-BOYS.
Shirota joined the Watanabe Entertainment group, the D-BOYS in October 2004. As a member, he participated in photobook releases, stage performances, radio show hosting, event and meeting greetings, and filming variety shows.
With the D-BoYS, he was featured in their first two photobooks, the self-titled D-Boys and the second called Start. He hosted a radio show called "Marvelous Radio Vibration" with fellow D-BOYS member, Kotaro Yanagi and Yukki. The show aired on May 5, 2005 and ended its run on April 1, 2006. The D-BOYS then starred in their own drama documentary variety show called, DD-Boys in which Shirota's appeared in multiple episodes as himself. The show was 23 episodes long and ran from April 10 to September 25, 2006.
In June 2007, the D-BOYS starred in their first musical together called, D-BOYS STAGE,[16] which ran from June 3 to June 10 at the Space Zero theater in Tokyo. Shirota appeared in the musical only as a guest performer, making select appearances on June 3, June 8 and June 10, due to his busy schedule. The D-BOYS then starred in their 2nd musical, The Last Game to which on June 27, 2008, Shirota announced his graduation during the encore of the play while assuring the media that he would still remain under the Watanabe Entertainment management and still participate in certain D-BOYS projects and events. He officially graduated from the group on July 6, 2008.
Despite having graduated from the D-BOYS, in December 2009, he was featured in both the sixth DVD release of the D-BOYS' Boy Friend series, called YU Channel and their "Kotoshi no Natsu wa Mainichi Dokoka de D-BOYS ☆Uki-uki♪Yatta♪Hohohoy♪" performance events, resulting in appearances in all three Natsu Doko 2009 CD and DVD releases, as well as appearances for promoting their second tour, Fuyu Doko 2009.
