is a Japanese film director, writer, editor, producer and actor best known for his 2013 movie The Great Passage for which he won best director at the 2013 Japanese Academy Awards.
Ishii was born in Urawa City, Saitama Prefecture on June 21, 1983. He is the second of two brothers and was raised by a single father after his mother succumbed to an illness when he was young.
Yuya Ishii won best director at the 2010 Blue Ribbon Awards, and the movie also resulted in his marriage in late 2010 to the lead actress Hikari Mitsushima, a former member of the J-pop group member Folder 5 and actress in such films as Death Note (2006) and Love Exposure (2008). They divorced in 2016.
In June 2018, Ishii shared the news that he had remarried actress Itsuki Sagara, who is twelve years younger than him, and that they were already expecting their first child. A year later in late August 2019, it was announced that his wife had given birth to their first child. His wife has also since retired from acting to focus on their family.