Masami Nagasawa

While in high school, she starred as one of the Shobijin in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) and would gain recognition for her leading role in Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004), for which she won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress and two Japan Academy Film Prize awards. In 2007, Nagasawa was nominated for the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Leading Actress and attained a Bunshun Raspberry Award for playing the title character in Tears for You (2006). Nagasawa's career progressed with her starring roles as Princess Yuki in Shinji Higuchi's Hidden Fortress: The Last Princess (2008), Umi Matsuzaki in Gorō Miyazaki's From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), and Miyuki Matsuo in the romantic comedy Love Strikes! (2011), for which she earned a second Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress. After playing a supporting character in Makoto Shinkai's Your Name (2016), she portrayed the protagonist in the critically acclaimed science fiction drama Before We Vanish (2017), for which she won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress. In 2019, she starred in the crime mystery Masquerade Hotel and portrayed Yang Duan He in the action-adventure Kingdom, for which she was nominated for a Nikkan Sports Film Award; she later reprised the role of Yang Duan He in the 2023 film Kingdom: Flame of Destiny. Nagasawa has also played Dako in The Confidence Man JP film trilogy (2019-2022), Anna Kobayashi in Chen Sicheng's buddy-comedy Detective Chinatown 3 (2021), Hiroko Asami in Higuchi's critically acclaimed superhero film Shin Ultraman (2022), and Scorpion-Aug in Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider (2023).

Masami Nagasawa studied at Horikoshi High School. The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is acting and modelling. Works named in the authority record are Masquerade Hotel. Distinctions recorded are Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actress, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Newcomer.

Nagasawa was born on June 3, 1987, in Iwata, Shizuoka. She stated that during her childhood, her father, the former Júbilo Iwata manager Kazuaki Nagasawa, "wasn't at home much because of work". She has an older brother who actress Yoshino Kimura described as "handsome" and Nagasawa described as "cool".

Nagasawa starred in many Japanese television drama series. Early supporting roles in the 2002 NHK asadora Sakura and the 2005 Tokyo Broadcasting System Television live action manga adaptation Dragon Zakura led to more TV work, including a leading role in the 2007 Fuji TV series Proposal Daisakusen (Operation Love). Her performance in Proposal Daisakusen (Operation Love) received the most votes in the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix Best Actress category. After her initial success in television, Nagasawa continued to perform in both supporting and leading television drama roles. In 2009 she played a supporting role in the NHK taiga drama Tenchijin, and in 2010 she joined several other leading Japanese actors in the Fuji TV 50th anniversary mini-series Wagaya no Rekishi. In 2012 her performance in the TV Asahi drama Toshi densetsu no onna won the 73rd Television Drama Academy Best Actress Award. In 2013 she learned Chinese to play a leading role in the Taiwan Television adaptation of the manga series Chocolat. Nagasawa returned to NHK in the 2016 taiga drama Sanada Maru.

Nagasawa appeared with Jun Matsumoto and Eita Nagayama in Hideki Noda's Sei sankaku kankei (正三角関係, Trilateral connection). Performances were at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, in Kitakyushu and Osaka, as well as Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, under the name of "Love in action", running from July 11 until November 2, 2024.

Nagasawa lives in Meguro, Tokyo. On January 1, 2026, Nagasawa's agency announced her marriage to director Takeshi Fukunaga.