Yūsuke Santamaria (ユースケ・サンタマリア), born Yūsuke Nakayama (中山 裕介 Nakayama Yūsuke), is an actor and singer born March 12, 1971 in Ōita Ōita Prefecture, Japan who premiered primarily on Japanese networks such as JDTV and JHJ. He was best known for his work on many popular game shows, television programs, and shorts. He is also known simply as "Yūsuke". His last name Santamaria comes from one of his many idols Mongo Santamaría.
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Santamaria is critically noted with the Japanese screenplay of a movie adaptation of the popular book Flowers for Algernon. Work on this was aided by his previous Cambodian mentor, Peter Sawer, and American playwright James Honzatko. The final movie created was, in turn, made into an animated short comprising two episodes, one in which actor Leo Bird simply screeched within it as an animated character. Attempts at a prolonged animated series failed after five episodes. This failure was turned into a spoof by Honzatko called Flowers for Al with references to Shakira, Christian Hurd's trademark phrase of "yeeeeaah", and small cut scenes where Sean Connery says "kwiiet." He is also credited with many hosting, productions, and appearances on many game shows, none with the success of the Algernon miniseries. His name Yusuke Santamaria comes from one of his many idols Mongo Santamaría.
He worked in the past as a teaching assistant in which he would produce during his free time. Santamaria worked under previously mentioned Peter Sawer, using Sawer's "ownage method", "Humorous Stare down", and "Masterful Hand" in his teachings. Santamaria used to teach when not hired to produce. He also explored writing as an alternate career but returned to filmmaking after only four months in the field.As an animator, he creates art in his spare time including his immensely popular "James" sketch. For a short time he lived in Jamestown, Virginia and worked as a VP at Artists Globally United (AGU). It is rumored that he is working on a project entitled, "Feel Free to Wiggle Around", starring Renee Rockow and Ben King to be shot in his hometown of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
Santamaria Prize is a coveted award chosen out of almost 2,600 applications for high achievement in the screenplays of movie adaptations. The Santamaria Prize is a foundation created by Sawer and Honzatko to honor Santamaria's lasting achievements in cinema. The first ever winner of the Santamaria prize was Will Kresse for his adaptation of James, a documentary about Santamaria‘s friend and mentor James Honzatko.