Maaya Sakamoto
In the Japanese localization of overseas dubs, she has voiced Padmé Amidala in the "Star Wars" films and series, as well as performing the dub voice for Natalie Portman in numerous films. In video games, she voices Aigis in "Persona 3", Maki Harukawa in "", Aerith Gainsborough in "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII", Aura and Natsume in ".hack", Lightning in the "Final Fantasy XIII" games, Ling Xiaoyu in "Tekken", and Alisa Ilinichina Amiella in "God Eater". As a singer, she has performed songs in both English and Japanese. She released her debut single "Yakusoku wa Iranai" in collaboration with  Yoko Kanno under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996. Her singles "Tune the Rainbow", "Loop", "Ame ga Furu", and "Triangler" have all reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart: "Triangler" in particular charted at number 3 and remained charting for 26 weeks. Her albums have had similar success, with "Shōnen Alice" and "Yūnagi Loop" both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; and her album "You Can't Catch Me", released on January 12, 2011, became her first release to ever reach number 1. She held a concert at the Nippon Budokan on March 31, 2010, her thirtieth birthday. Biography . Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up in a family formed by her parents and her older brother. She started working as a voice actress in a very early age and the first leading role she was given was in the 1993 OVA "Little Twins". In 1996, she was given the role of Hitomi Kanzaki, the leading role in the TV anime series "The Vision of Escaflowne". For this anime she also performed the opening theme, which was released as her debut single on April 24, 1996. The single was produced by Yoko Kanno, who was also in charge of the  soundtrack for Escaflowne. Her first album, titled "Grapefruit", was released on April 23, 1997. Since then, Sakamoto would perform theme songs for several anime series, including "Clamp School Detectives" (1997), "Record of Lodoss War" (1998) and "Cardcaptor Sakura" (1999). Since her very debut, all of her music was produced by Yoko Kanno and her music crew, which includes a selected number of musicians including Yūho Iwasato, Gabriela Robin, Shanti Snyder, and Tim Jensen. Since her debut, Sakamoto worked almost exclusively with Kanno and company for almost a decade. Apart from her work as a voice actress and singer, in October  1996 Sakamoto also debuted as a radio host presenting her own program, "Sakamoto Maaya no Naisho-banashi", on radio station Nack 5. In 2003, Sakamoto made her debut as a theatre actress on the Japanese version of the musical "Les Misérables", playing the role of Éponine. This year she also starred in her first TV drama "Suekko Chounan Ane San-nin", and also played the leading role in the short film "03†" directed by Hidenori Sugimori. On the other hand, Sakamoto's 11th single "Tune the Rainbow", released on April 2, 2003, became her first Top 10 single in Japan , peaking at number 9 in the Oricon weekly charts. Her fourth album, "Shōnen Alice", released on December 10, 2003, became her first Top 10 album on the Oricon charts and also her last record to be produced exclusively by Yoko Kanno; since this release Sakamoto would involve further in the music making process and production of her records. Her fifth album, "Yūnagi Loop", released on October 26, 2005, was her first co-produced by herself along with musician Mistuyoshi Tamura, whom she would continue working in her subsequent records. This album's lead single, "Loop"—ending theme for TV anime series  Tsubasa Chronicle—peaked at number seven on the Oricon charts, also becoming her highest chart peaking single at that time. In 2008, Sakamoto and worked once again with Yoko Kanno for her 15th single, "Triangler", which was used as opening theme for the TV anime series "Macross Frontier". "Triangler" became a big hit, peaking at the Top 3 single of the Oricon charts. The single ended up becoming Sakamoto's biggest selling single to date, with more than 90,000 copies sold. The song was later included in Sakamoto's sixth album, "Kazeyomi", which was released January 2009 and also peaked within  the Top 3. For promoting this album, Sakamoto began her first low-scale national tour, on which she held three concerts in Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo. The tour was later released as her first live DVD on August 11, 2011. In 2010, Sakamoto celebrated her 15th anniversary in the entertainment industry, releasing on March 31—her 30th birthday—her greatest hits album "Everywhere", and also holding a concert at the Nippon Budokan. also in 2010, Sakamoto was playing the role of Ritsuko Nonomura in Japanese musical adaption of the South Korean movie "A Moment to Remember", along with Rina Chinen  and Rina Uchiyama (best known for starring in Strawberry on the Shortcake, Good Luck!!, Fire Boys, ). In 2011, her seventh album "You Can't Catch Me" became her first album to reach the first stop of the Oricon charts. Her 2012 "Mitsubachi" tour concluded with an announcement at her New Year's Eve concert of a new full-length album of songs written and composed solely by Sakamoto, as well as a short concert tour to support it. The album, titled "Singer Song Writer", featured two new versions of Sakamoto's previous compositions "Everywhere" and "Chikai", as well as eight  original tracks. Collaborations. Sakamoto first teamed up with composer Yoko Kanno in her 1996 debut single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai" ("Promises Not Needed"), which was used as the opening theme for the anime series "The Vision of Escaflowne". Kanno collaborated with Sakamoto up until her fifth album, "Yūnagi Loop", which has no songs composed by Kanno. Sakamoto also performed three songs for the series "Wolf's Rain", for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity" (which is sung completely in English), "Tell Me What The Rain Knows" (with lyrics by Chris Mosdell) and "Cloud 9". She performed "Hemisphere", the opening theme of  the series "RahXephon", as well as two songs for the series' theatrical version "": "Tune the Rainbow" and "The Garden of Everything" (duet with Steve Conte). In 2008, Sakamoto and Kanno collaborated again for "Triangler", the opening theme song for the series "Macross Frontier". She also performed the song "cream" with HIDE, which was featured in the "" mini album "be Human". She was one half of the voice acting duo "Whoops!!", alongside Chieko Higuchi. Personal life. Sakamoto graduated from Toyo University with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology in spring 2002. On August 8, 2011, she married fellow voice actor and  frequent co-star Kenichi Suzumura. On December 27, 2021, she announced that she was expecting her first child with Suzumura. On April 21, 2022, the couple announced the birth of their first child. Awards and nominations. In the 23rd Anime Grand Prix, she ranked tenth place under the voice actress category with 126 votes. In addition, in the first "Seiyu Awards", she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her portrayal of Haruhi Fujioka in "Ouran High School Host Club" as well as "Best Musical Performance" for "Tsubasa Chronicle"'s ending theme "Loop". - A monthly column Maaya