Probably the
best known female rookie voice actor of the 2000s, "Aya-chan" was born in in 1987. In 2006, she rocketed to fame as the voice of
Haruhi Suzumiya, but fans of
Kiddy Grade (2002) would have said, "I told you so." With her role as Layla in
Nana, Misa in
Death Note, and Konata in
Lucky Star, she sealed her reputation as a
seiyuu with many voices. Contrary to what you might expect considering her roles — in which she often uses a deep, mature female voice — her actual speaking voice is quite high and squeaky.
Winner of Best New
Seiyuu at the First Annual
Seiyuu Awards and both Best Female
Seiyuu and Best Singer at the second annual awards.
Really cute in
Real Life, and short.
Mamoru Miyano, her
Death Note co-star and fellow winner in the 2nd Seiyu Awards,
easily towers over her. As well as voice acting, she sings and models as well. In fact,
she's performed the openings and endings of some animes she worked on, most notably
"Bouken, Desho? Desho?", "Super Driver", and the extraordinarily popular "Hare Hare Yukai" as well as insert songs, notably
"God Knows" and "Lost my Music". Her hobbies include guitar, piano, reading, drawing, and calligraphy.
Her guilty pleasures include the music of
Avril Lavigne. Oh, and she tends to go out in public wearing
t-shirts
◊ with
charming slogans like
"Did you cum twice too?" Whether she actually is aware of what these phrases mean is
up for debate.
In an attempt to branch out further for her career (which may or may not have been triggered by the above issue), she is slated to play Catherine
in a stage musical adaptation of
Wuthering Heights.
In November 2010, Aya revealed on her Twitter account that she has harbored a pituitary adenoma since her junior high school days. To date, she has held off on surgery to remove the tumor because the procedure would alter her nasal cavity and thus permanently modify her voice. In April 2011, possibly in connection to her health problems,
she reported that she was under orders that prohibit her from acting in new anime until further notice
, although she will still be able to play her current roles.
She officially went in semi-retirement by the end of May 2011.
Finally fed up with how her agency treated her like shit over the past year concerning her health issues and scandals (as well as the colossal failure of
Dragonaut The Resonance),
she voluntarily resigned from the agency effective August 20, 2011.
Starting on August 21, she is now an official member of Grick
and has officially returned from semi-retirement as a seiyuu
, but there are doubts over whether or not she'll continue working on
Haruhi Suzumiya,
Lucky Star or
Fairy Tail.
She has also signed with UMG, thus officially moving out of semi-retirement altogether.
Add to that her aforementioned health problems, and she may very well be on her way to becoming the
Michael Jackson of seiyuu.
Notable roles by Aya Hirano.