Yuri Chinen

Yuri Chinen is a Japanese actor, talent and singer as well as member of Hey! Say! JUMP. He is under the management of Johnny & Associates. He was born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture and lives in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Also known as "the little giant", he often expresses his admiration towards Arashi leader, Satoshi Ohno.

Life

His name comes from Yuri Osawa, an announcer, whose name his mother liked, but is written with different characters; the yu is a character often used in girl’s names and the ri is taken from a surname his mother thought common among Chinese gold medalist gymnasts.He recently just graduated from Horikoshi High School.

Career

On June 2, 2003, Yuri entered Johnny & Associates as a trainee. Daiki Arioka, who would later debut as a member of the same group, was also there during that time.

On April 3 of that same year, he began activities with Hey! Say! 7 starting with a public performance at a KAT-TUN concert.

On September 21, 2007, he began performing as a member of Hey! Say! JUMP.

He was 2008 in the drama, One-Pound Gospel, as Yoshihiko in Episode 3, with Hey! Say! JUMP member Ryosuke Yamada and their senior, Kazuya Kamenashi (KAT-TUN).

At the same year, he played in the drama Sensei wa erai! as Umeno Wataru, along with other Hey! Say! JUMP members: Yuto Nakajima, Ryosuke Yamada and Daiki Arioka.

In October 2008, he was in the drama called Scrap Teacher: Kyoushi Saisei as Yoshida Eitaro, along with other Hey! Say! JUMP members that played with him in Sensei wa erai!.

As supporter for the Japanese Volleyball Team for the FIVB World Grand Prix 2009, he performed in June 2009 with Ryosuke Yamada and Nakayama Yuma w/ B.I.Shadow which composes of Kento Nakajima, Kikuchi Fuma, Hokuto Matsumura and Yugo Kochi as members of the temporary group NYC Boys. The "C" of NYC boys comes from the initials of his family name "Chinen".

On March 2, 2010, a press release made by Johnny and Associates revealed that Chinen and Yamada would become members of a second Johnny's unit, NYC. They are currently working as a member of both Hey! Say! JUMP and NYC, which is a rarity in their talent agency. Ryo Nishikido (and formerly Uchi Hiroki) is the only such case of a Johnny's talent officially debuting in two groups (Kanjani8 and NEWS), and should NYC become an officially debuted Johnny's unit, Yamada and Chinen would join him in this unusual situation.