Photography by Anthony Wood (2026)
Kensaku Lereau Watanabe is a Tokyo-based Casting Director and Talent Video Director at Condé Nast Japan. For more than 15 years, he has worked across commercial advertising, editorial, and film, collaborating with global brands, publishers, filmmakers, and creative teams in Japan and beyond.
His work spans celebrity casting, actor and model casting, and street casting. Drawing on a deep understanding of Japan’s entertainment and cultural landscape, together with an extensive domestic and international agency network, he works closely with directors and producers to identify the right people for every project. Fluent in Japanese, French, and English, he collaborates seamlessly across international productions and multicultural creative teams.
His portfolio includes work for Nike, Vogue Japan, and World of Hyatt. His casting for Nike’s “The Future Isn’t Waiting” earned him a D&AD Graphite Pencil in the Casting category. The campaign itself went on to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial and was named Adweek Campaign of the Year.
Kensaku believes that a great cast is the emotional engine of any narrative. Whether a project demands world-champion Olympic athletes, avant-garde subculture icons, or real people with powerful stories, his mission is to source talent that doesn’t just look the part, but lives it.
In 2025, Kensaku served as a jury member for the D&AD Awards and the Casting Directors Association Awards.
