[3] With his fluent-spoken English and understanding of American culture, he serves as a creative career advisor in the Executive Management Team of LDH USA.
His deep love for music started in junior high school, when he was a teenager troubled by existential anxiety and sleeping disorder.
While questioning his role in this world, he found relief in music such as J-pop as he learned from the lyrics that there are various ways of life.
[10] Naoki started dancing at the age of 17, with the consideration that a musician needs to have a good sense of rhythm.
[13][14][15] Naoki accepted the offer and joined the team in July of the same year while also starting to use the alias Jr.Twiggz as a member.
[3] From October to November, the group went on a nation-wide small-scale tour, the so-called Musha Shugyo ("Samurai Training"), during which the members traveled on a bus and put on 48 shows in 2 months around the country.
Hiro, the producer of the new J Soul Brothers, appointed Naoki and Naoto, the two youngest members of Exile, as the co-leaders of the new dance and vocal group.
As the leader of the new Sandaime J Soul Brothers, Naoki actively participated in the selection of the group's members, recommending then-EXPG's instructor Kenjiro Yamashita and Rag Pound's member Takanori Iwata, a university student at that time, to join the audition.
[26] On 27 September, Naoki appeared and performed first time as a member of Sandaime J Soul Brothers on the stage of Exile's Live FANTASY After Night Festival ～EXILE Soul～.
[27][28] On 10 November, the birthday of Naoki, Sandaime J Soul Brothers debuted with their first single "Best Friend's Girl".
[31] The song also won Naoki and Sandaime J Soul Brothers the Japan Record Award for the first time[32][33] and skyrocketed the group to mainstream success.
[40] In January 2017, Naoki appeared at Yohji Yamamoto HOMME 2017–2018 AW Paris Collection as a show model for a second time.
Naoki joined LDH USA's management team as creative career advisor, aiming to bring Japanese Culture to Hollywood.
As early as 2015, with his vision to bring Japanese culture to the world, and his wish to become the member that focus more on oversea of his groups, Naoki decided that films would be his next move, and set up his goal of building an international base acting career.
[3] Naoki played Shinpei, a friend from childhood to Gosuke, the main character, and he stated that his experience in dancing has helped him to perform Japanese sword fighting scene since this two are not so far away.
[3] On 19 August, the third film of the High&Low franchise, High&Low The Movie 2 / End of Sky, was released, and Naoki played Genji Kuki, a samurai-like killer, and leader of Kuki gang of Kuryu Group.
[51] In 2018, Naoki appeared again on the runway of Yohji Yamamoto HOMME 2018–2019 AW Paris Collection.
[3][41][52] After Naoki's fateful meeting with Ridley Scott, Netflix announced in 2018 that Naoki would fill out the lethal love triangle with Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough of Earthquake Bird,[53] a film executive-produced by Ridley Scott.
The film marked his first foray into American cinema, and Naoki starred as Teiji, a Tokyo photographer who drove a wedge between his female co-stars.
[45][56] In June 2019, LDH announced that Naoki Kobayashi would start in short film Umikaze of the drama anthology Sono Shunkan, Boku wa Nakitaku Natta -Cinema Fighters project-, which is the 3rd film of the Cinema Fighters project, a joint project by Exile Hiro, Tetsuya Bessho, who is the representative director of SSFF & ASIA, and lyricist Masato Odake.
[61][62] From 23 October, Naoki's first autobiographical essay "I can't become EXILE" was serialized on Bungei Shunjū digital.
[70] On 25 January 2012, LDH announced that Naoki has been diagnosed with spinal canal stenosis, and he would limit his activity to undergo surgery and recovery.