Minami Hamabe

Hamabe was born on August 29, 2000, in Ishikawa Prefecture. She started off her career by winning the New Generation Award at the 7th Toho Cinderella Audition. She has since starred in numerous films and dramas, with many of them being live-action adaptations of popular manga and video games.

Hamabe gained widespread fame for her role in Japan for her role in the live-action film Let Me Eat Your Pancreas, which tells the story of a terminally ill girl's relationship with her introvert male classmate who happens to find out about her illness by accident. The film was the 5th highest-grossing film in Japan in 2017. Hamabe was awarded the Newcomer Of The Year Award at the 41st Japan Academy Film Prize, with the film itself being nominated for the Picture of the Year award at the same ceremony.

In 2019, Hamabe starred in the film The Great War of Archimedes. The film grossed over 1.9 billion yen in Japan is amongst the highest-grossing film of 2019 in Japan.

In 2020, Hamabe co-starred with Ryusei Yokohama and Yukino Kishii in the live-action adaptation of the manga Cursed in Love. Hamabe also appeared in the film Murders At The House of Death in 2020. The film has grossed over 1 billion yen and is the 20th highest-grossing film in Japan for the year 2020.

In December 2020, Hamabe starred in the live-action film The Promised Neverland. The film has since grossed over 2.1 billion yen in Japan, making it amongst the highest-grossing film of 2021 in Japan. Hamabe starred in the drama Dr. White in 2022. The drama is based on the novels Dr. White: Senrigan no Karute (published 2015 by Kadokawa) and Dr. White: Kami no Shindan (published 2019 by Kadokawa) by Shin Kibayashi. Hamabe also appeared alongside Sho Hirano in the SP drama Seito ga Jinsei wo Yarinaoseru Gakko. Hamabe again starred alongside Yukino Kishii in the film One Day, You Will Reach the Sea (Yagate Umi e to Todoku) which was released in April 2022.

Hamabe was chosen directly by NHK without audition as the 108th Asadora heroine by NHK whereby she starred alongside Ryunosuke Kamiki as the wife of Kamiki's character. Filming for the Asadora, titled Ranman (らんまん), began in fall 2023. She appeared in two major films in 2023: Hideaki Anno's live-action superhero film Shin Kamen Rider and played a similar character to that of Ranman in Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One.