Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up in a family, formed by her parents and older brother. She started working as a
voice actress at an 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. Her first album,
Grapefruit, was released on April 23, 1997. Sakamoto's early music was produced by Kanno and her team, which included Yūho Iwasato,
Shanti Snyder and Tim Jensen. 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 addition to her work as an Anime Seiyuu, Sakamoto performed the dub voice for many Hollywood actresses, such as
Anna Chlumsky in
My Girl,
Anna Paquin in
Amistad and
True Blood,
Claire Danes in
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and
Christina Ricci in
Casper. Furthermore, Sakamoto also performed theme songs for several anime series, including "
Gift" for
Clamp School Detectives (1997), "
Kiseki no Umi" for
Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (1998) and "
Platinum" for
Cardcaptor Sakura (1999), which won the Best Theme Song awards from
Anime Grand Prix for two consecutive years. In 2002, Sakamoto worked again with Kanno and Yūho Iwasato for her 10th single, "
Hemisphere", the opening theme for the TV anime series
RahXephon. Released on February 21, 2002, "Hemisphere" peaking at number 22 in the
Oricon and number 24 in the
Count Down TV weekly charts. In 2003, Sakamoto made her debut as a theatre actress on the Japanese version of the musical
Les Misérables, playing the role of
Éponine. On the other hand, Sakamoto's 11th single "
Tune the Rainbow" (Released on April 2, 2003), which was used as the main theme song for
RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio, The only anime movie that was nominated for the
35th Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. 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. "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 in 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 her 30th birthday her greatest hits album
Everywhere, and also holding a concert at the
Nippon Budokan. 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. On September 25, 2017, the
NHK Anime World website revealed that Sakamoto would perform "
Clear" (Sakamoto 27th single, Released on January 31, 2018), the opening song for the anime adaptation of
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card. Sakamoto and Yoshiki Mizuno from
Ikimonogakari co-written the song's lyrics, while music arrangement was arranged by
Shin Kono. ==Collaborations==