Tet Wada - Career

Career

After graduating, Wada worked in a marketing role at Donna Karan New York's headquarters. While he was a student, Wada worked as a researcher and house model for leather designer Anton, whose celebrity clients include Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Sting and Alicia Keys. New York-based modeling agency Q Models saw Wada and signed him on as its first Asian model. Wada was initially not interested in modeling and continued to work at Donna Karan, but his strong Asian features and cool persona shot him to modeling fame, and Wada resigned from his marketing job. Wada became the first Japanese male model to be featured in Vogue Paris. He was cast with top model Daria Werbowy in a widely talked about photograph of the two kissing. Wada solidified his reputation as a leading Asian fashion artist and collaborated with world famous photographers including Michael Thompson, Terry Richardson, Markus Klinko and Greg Lotus. Wada also acted in numerous TV shows and movies in the U.S. and a film he had a leading role in screened at the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival. Starting in 2012, Wada formally shifted his career focus to Asia. After shooting a film in Japan, he spent 6 months in Taiwan as a main cast member of the television series Chocolat. (Chocolat is scheduled to air in Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries in 2013.) Wada has appeared in multiple advertisement campaigns for global brands including SONY, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, SK-II, L'Oreal, Subaru, Evian, Bacardi, KOOL Cigarettes, Uniqlo, and GAP. He was booked by Uniqlo at the onset of the brand’s expansion into the U.S. and European markets and appeared in its campaigns for four years. He is now appearing in ads for Asian brands and is modeling for the Diane Shampoo Series in 2013 co-starring with Yuriko Yoshitaka.