Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾)

* Favorite colors: Pink and brown

* Hobbies: Performing, reading, singing

* She is a graduate from Toyo University (Bachelor in Sociology).

* She has been called (お姉さま, Onee-sama?), a respectful way of saying "older sister" by her Ouran co-host Ayaka Saitō.

* Nothing much is known about her family except that her father, Yoshimi Sakamoto, is an expert in stage lighting.

* When she went to the AnimeFest in 2005, she said that her favorite Western bands are Oasis and Maroon 5.

* She has had at least one song, that appeared on the NHK program, Minna no Uta.

* She was one half of the seiyū duo "Whoops!!", alongside Chieko Higuchi.

Later on, she has had many subsequent voice roles in anime such as Record of Lodoss War, Kanon, RahXephon, Gundam SEED DESTINY, .hack//SIGN, and others.

In the first Seiyu Awards, she was nominated for "Best Main Character (female)" and "Best Single".

She also had voice roles in video games such as Panzer Dragoon Saga, Kingdom Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist 3: Kami wo Tsugu Shoujo, Napple Tale, and Suikoden Tierkreis. She also does the voice of Padmé Amidala in the Japanese dub of Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III and Max in the television series Dark Angel.

Her latest album 30 minutes night flight was released on March 21, 2007.

Maaya first teamed up with composer Yoko Kanno in her debut single, Yakusoku wa Iranai in 1996. Kanno collaborated with Maaya up until her fifth album, Yūnagi LOOP, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Maaya also performed three songs for the anime Wolf's Rain, for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity", "Tell Me What The Rain Knows", and "Cloud 9". More recently, Maaya and Kanno joined forces again for Triangler, the opening theme song for the anime Macross Frontier. She performed "The Garden of Everything" for the anime RahXephon with Steve Conte.[2]

Maaya occasionally writes her own lyrics but mostly works with others. Frequent collaborators include Yūho Iwasato for Japanese songs and Tim Jensen for English songs.

Not only is she fluent in Japanese but also can speak some English.

Maaya gave her first U.S. concert on July 3rd at the 2005 Anime Expo in Anaheim, California. During the eight song concert (with a one song encore), Ms. Sakamoto amazed her fans by speaking entirely in fluent English throughout the show. She was also repeatedly overwhelmed with happiness at the size and energy of the several thousand-strong crowd, much to the audience's delight

A women of many talents. For more information please check out these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maaya_Sakamoto http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=527

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0757087/