Person: Sakamoto Maaya

Sakamoto Maaya (born March 31, 1980 in Itabashi, Tokyo) is a popular Japanese singer-songwriter, actress, and voice actress (seiyuu). Sakamoto graduated from Toyo University with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1996 as the voice of Kanzaki Hitomi in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne, and released her debut single Yakusoku wa Iranai, in collaboration with Kanno Youko under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996.

Since her 1996 debut, she is among the more popular voice actresses who have also branched into singing, performing songs in both English and Japanese. As well as being a prolific seiyuu, she has also had several successful releases; despite initially only modestly selling, 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 #3 and remained charting for 26 weeks. Her albums have had similar success, with Shounen Alice and Yuunagi Loop both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; her newest album, Kazeyomi, released on January 14, 2009, also peaked at #3.

Not much is known about her family, however, her father Sakamoto Yoshimi, is an expert in stage lighting. During AnimeFest in 2005, she stated that her favorite Western bands are Oasis and Maroon 5. She also has had at least one song, Uchiihikkoshi no Uta, that has appeared on the NHK program, Minna no Uta.

Sakamoto first teamed up with composer Kanno Youko in her debut single, Yakusoku wa Iranai in 1996. Kanno collaborated with Sakamoto up until her fifth album, Yuunagi Loop, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Sakamoto also performed three songs for the anime 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. More recently, Sakamoto and Kanno collaborated again for Triangler, the opening theme song for the anime Macross Frontier, and performed The Garden of Everything for the anime RahXephon with Steve Conte. She also performed the song cream with HIDE, which was featured in Ghost in the Shell's mini album, be Human.

She also first collaborated with Suzuki Shouko in 2005 for the music and lyrics of No Fear/Ai Suru Koto and the composition of A Happy Ending, both which appeared in her fifth album Yuunagi Loop. Later, she composed the title track of Sakamoto's 13th single Kazemachi Jet/Spica in 2006. The following year, she wrote the music and lyrics of Kioku-there's no end and composed Universe for the mini album 30Minutes Night Flight. The title track of her 14th single, Saigo no Kajitsu/Mitsubashi to Kagakusha, as well as the album version of Kazemachi Jet; featured in her 6th studio album, Kazeyomi, were composed by Suzuki.

She has also worked with the composer h-wonder on a few occasions, with songs such as Honey Come, Fuyu Desuka, Loop, and action!. She covered the Beatles song Here, There and Everywhere, but this cover does not appear in any of her albums or singles to date.

Sakamoto, who is also a lyricist, often writes her own lyrics, but occasionally uses lyrics written by or in collaboration with others. Frequent collaborators include Iwasato Yuuho for Japanese songs and Tim Jensen for English songs. She also wrote lyrics with Gabriela Robin for two of Megumi Nakajima's songs. Lyricist Chris Mosdell, well known in Japan particularly for his association with Yellow Magic Orchestra, has also written lyrics for her, including Kingfisher Girl on Shounen Alice and Another Grey Day in the Big Blue World on Easy Listening.

She has also collaborated and appeared in many of CLAMP's works, and has performed theme music for many of the adaptations of their series. Her first appearance in a CLAMP authored work was in CLAMP School Detectives, in which she sang Bokura no Rekishi, which was the theme song to its radio drama. She also provided the anime's second ending theme song, Gift. Later, her single Platinum was used as an opening song for Cardcaptor Sakura; she also lent her voice to a Clow Card in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. She also voiced Suu in Clover's OVA, and voiced Tomoyo in Tsubasa Chronicle; singing several songs for the soundtracks, as well as the ending theme from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's OVAs, Tokyo Revelations and the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle OAD, Tsubasa Shunraiki. In addition, she sings the opening theme, action! for CLAMP in Wonderland 2, and her single Magic Number was used as the opening of Kobato.

In the 23rd Anime Grand Prix, she ranked tenth place under the seiyuu category with 126 votes.

In addition, in the first Seiyuu Awards, she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her portrayal of Fujioka Haruhi in Ouran High School Host Club as well as "Best Musical Performance" for Tsubasa Chronicle's ending theme "Loop".