Person: Miyazaki Aoi

Miyazaki Aoi, born November 30, 1985 Tokyo, Japan, is an actress. She is best known for her pure image and roles such as in Nana and Virgin Snow. Her brother Miyazaki Masaru is an actor, and they starred together in the film Hatsukoi. She married Takaoka Sosuke on June 15, 2007, her partner since she was fifteen. She is close to Aoi Yuu, Kuriyama Chiaki, Sudo Atsuko, Becky, and Matsumoto Marika.

Miyazaki started working in the entertainment industry at the age of four. Initially she appeared mostly in commercials, magazine advertisements, and as an extra in various television dramas. Miyazaki made her film debut in One Summer's Day at the age of fourteen.

When Miyazaki was 14, she began to draw international attention for her role as the survivor of a traumatic bus hijack in Shinji Aoyama's Eureka. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2000, and resulted in her receiving the Best New Actress Award of the Japanese Professional Movie Awards. In 2003, she also made her musical debut in The Little Prince.

Later, she won Best Actress Awards in the Nantes Festival of the 3 Continents and the Cinemanila International Film Festival for her convincing performance in Harmful Insect. She teamed up with Aoyama again in Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?, an Un Certain Regard selection at Cannes 2005. Later in the same year, Miyazaki Aoi co-starred with Nakashima Mika in the mainstream & commercially successful Nana, which boosted her career to a new level of popularity.

On June 15, 2007 Miyazaki Aoi married long time boyfriend and actor Takaoka Sousuke. Her older brother is actor Miyazaki Masaru.

Beyond acting, Miyazaki Aoi has become a much sought after spokesperson and model. She has appeared in commercials for major corporations like Aflac, Tokyo Metro, and Olympus. In early 2008 Miyazaki Aoi was also selected as Emperio Armani's new print advertisement model.

With each year Miyazaki Aoi has taken a more prominent position in activism projects. In 2005, Miyazaki Aoi with older brother Miyazaki Masaru traveled to India to experience firsthand poverty stricken in that area and highlight those problems to their fans via their 2006 photobook Tarinai Peace. In 2006, the siblings traveled to Denmark & Finland to investigate global warming. Their experiences were then published in their 2007 photobook Love.Peace & Green Tarinai Peace2. More recently, in April, 2008, Miyazaki Aoi took part in the Gold Ribbon Walking event in Roppongi, Tokyo to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer. Her 2008 film Children of the Dark also addresses issues of child exploitation.

In 2008, she won the Galaxy Individual Award for her performance in the NHK drama Atsuhime.

Note: Her name is often written with wrongly kanji 宮崎あおい.