GACKT

Director & actor · born 4 July 1973 · Okinawa, Japan

Gakuto Oshiro (born July 4, 1973) best known by his mononymous stage name Gackt is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor.

Gackt’s father was a music teacher, and his mother also a teacher. He is the second of three children, with an older sister and younger brother. His musical education began early, and he started learning classical music theory and piano from the age of three. After exposure to rock music during his teenage years he practiced electric guitar and drums intensely. In the early 1990s he was working as a sound technician and studio drummer, but by the mid-'90s he had begun his career as a singer. He spent a short time in the independent band Cains:Feel before moving on to the visual kei rock band Malice Mizer. With Gackt as vocalist, lyricist, and composer, they rose to fame within the visual kei genre. In 1999 he parted ways with the band and launched his solo career, debuting with the EP Mizérable. He has since released nine studio albums, eight compilation albums, and forty-four singles. He has toured extensively within Japan and also throughout Asia and Europe.

Where to start: Bunraku (2010).