Kent "Kenji" Kurosawa

Kent “Kenji” Macario Kurosawa, 27 years old, of Carrboro, North Carolina, passed away on October 1st, 2025.

Kent was born in Hampton, Virginia in 1998 to parents Meriam Kurosawa and Kurt Kurosawa. Following his parents’ deaths as a child, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina along with his siblings under the guardianship of Amy and Bobby Koo. He completed high school at Leesville Road High School in 2017, and then went on to major in Exercise and Sports Physiology at East Carolina University. He graduated from ECU with a bachelor’s degree in 2021.
Kent was preceded in death by mother Meriam Kurosawa (1974-2014), father Kurt Kurosawa (1952-2014), and paternal grandmother Alice Kurosawa (1923-2024). He is survived by a thousand siblings: Kip Kurosawa, Kary Kurosawa, Amy Koo, her husband Bobby Koo, Megan Kurosawa, and Paul Kurosawa, as well as a great deal of loving family on the west coast and in the Philippines.

Kent will be remembered as someone who was intelligent, kind, loved to perform, and reveled in a well-earned laugh. He had a particularity for details, and despite his reluctance for mess, was a lover of animals. He was in the LRHS Symphonic Band and Marching Band where he played tuba and sousaphone. He was involved in theater as a teenager (performing in Little Shop of Horrors), and as a college student won awards such as the Silver Tripod: Best Performance and the Jury Award at ECU’s Campus Movie Fest for his independent shorts. He also served as co-chair for the Ballroom Dance club at ECU.

A private viewing will be held for immediate family on October 17th, and a private celebration of life will be hosted October 18th, 2025 (by invitation only). Donations to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Kent’s name would be greatly appreciated.