Yuri Yamada

Photo: Atsuharu Ino

Yuri Yamada

Yamada is a writer, director, and actor born in 1992, in Tokyo. She began her theater company ZEITAKU BINBOU while attending Rikkyo University, writing and directing all its productions. Her works are known for seamlessly blurring the boundaries between stage and audience, reality and alternate worlds, normalcy and madness, while playfully addressing contemporary social issues in Japan with boundless imagination and diverse methods. Her works Fiction City (2017) and Mixture (2019) were nominated for the Kishida Kunio Drama Award. Yamada has been expanding her activities both in Japan and abroad, with Everyone Fears the Night (2015) touring in China and I’m Trying to Understand You, But (2019) staged in Paris as part of the official program of Festival d’Automne.

She is active as a writer and director for television, and writes novels and columns. Her screenwriting credits include Abema’s 17.3 about a sex, 30 Made ni to Urusakute, and NHK’s She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat. She also wrote and directed the WOWOW series Ningen Kowai. Her first collection of original essays will be published in fall 2025.