Ilia Kirillov

Rie Takahashi (高橋 李依, Takahashi Rie, born February 27, 1994) is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with 81 Produce. She had a leading role in the anime series Seiyu's Life!, where she became part of the musical unit Earphones. She voiced Futaba Ichinose in Seiyu's Life!, Megumin in KonoSuba, Emilia in Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, Takagi-san in Teasing Master Takagi-san, Mash Kyrielight in Fate/Grand Order, Mirai Asahina/Cure Miracle in Witchy PreCure!, Dan Kouzo in Bakugan: Battle Planet, and Hu Tao in Genshin Impact. She performed theme songs for the same series. She won the Best Female Newcomer at the 10th Seiyu Awards.

Biography

Takahashi was born in Saitama Prefecture. She watched Ojamajo Doremi, Higurashi When They Cry and Soul Eater while in high school. She noticed that many male characters were voiced by female voice actors; as this fact interested her, she decided to pursue a career in voice acting. She joined her school's broadcasting club during her third year of high school, and she also won a special citation for voice acting at the 4th High School Animation Fair. During her third year of high school, Takahashi participated in an audition sponsored by the voice acting agency 81 Produce. After graduating from high school, she attended 81 Produce's training school, 81 Actor's Studio. While continuing with her lessons, she became part of the voice actor unit Anisoni∀, alongside Reina Ueda, Chiyeri Hayashida and Kayoto Tsumita. After graduating from the 81 Actor's Studio in 2013, she formally joined 81 Produce. She worked many part time jobs such as at supermarkets and a bra factory.

In 2013, she played background or supporting roles in each series, such as Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C³, Driland and Aikatsu. She also played the role of a student in a voiced comic stream of the online manga Pokémon Card Game XY: Yarouze!. In 2015, she played her first lead role as Futaba Ichinose in the anime television series Seiyu's Life!. Takahashi, together with Seiyu's Life! co-stars Marika Kouno and Yuki Nagaku, formed the musical unit Earphones. That same year, she was cast as the characters Miki Naoki in School-Live! and Kaon Lanchester in Comet Lucifer. She and fellow School-Live! co-stars Inori Minase, Ari Ozawa, and Mao Ichimichi, performed the series' opening theme "Friend Shitai" (ふ・れ・ん・ど・し・た・い, I Want to be Friends). In March 2016, Takahashi received the Best Newcomer Award at the 10th Seiyu Awards. She was then cast as the character Megumin in the anime series KonoSuba; she and co-stars Sora Amamiya and Ai Kayano performed the series' closing theme "Chiisana Boukensha" (ちいさな冒険者, Little Adventurer). She also voiced the roles of Noct Leaflet in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle, OL in Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters, Mirai Asahina in Maho Girls PreCure!, and Code Omega 00 Yufilia in Ange Vierge. She played Emilia in the anime series Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World; Takahashi performed the series' second closing theme "Stay Alive". Later that year, she was cast as the character Mash Kyrielight in the mobile phone game Fate/Grand Order, replacing Risa Taneda who had gone on hiatus earlier that year. In 2017, Takahashi reprised the role of Megumin in the second season of KonoSuba, where she, Amamiya and Kayano performed the series' closing theme "Ouchi ni Kaeritai" (おうちに帰りたい, I Wanna Go Home). She played Aqua Aino in Love Tyrant, and Ernesti Echevarria in Knight's & Magic. In 2018, she played Takagi in the anime series Teasing Master Takagi-san, where she performed the series' ending themes. She also played the roles of Tsubasa Katsuki in Comic Girls and Sagiri Ameno in Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs. In 2019, she played Nozomi Makino in Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka. and reprised her role as Takagi-san in Teasing Master Takagi-san, where she performed the series' closing themes.

In February 2021, Takahashi announced her debut as a solo singer under A-Sketch/Astro Voice on April, along with the launch of her official fanclub, "Takaharitsu Riekoukou" (たかは私立りえ高校). Her debut album Tōmei na Fusen (透明な付箋) was released on June 23, 2021.

Tomokazu Sugita (杉田 智和, Sugita Tomokazu, born October 11, 1980) is a Japanese voice actor and author. He mainly plays young men and is characterized by his "deep bass voice," and he often performs ad-libs and imitations. He is best known for his roles as Gintoki Sakata in Gintama, Tadaomi Karasuma in Assassination Classroom, Hideki Motosuwa in Chobits, Rin Tsuchimi in Shuffle!, Gyoumei Himejima in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuichi Aizawa in Kanon, Kazuyoshi "Switch" Usui in Sket Dance, Hidenori Tabata in Daily Lives of High School Boys, Yuuya Kizami from the Corpse Party series, Gundham Tanaka from the Danganronpa series, Ragna the Bloodedge in Blazblue, Joseph Joestar in the 2012 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, Yusuke Kitagawa in Persona 5, Chrom in Fire Emblem, Akuru Akutsu in Aho Girl, Yahiro Takigawa in The Testament of Sister New Devil, Kaede Manyuda in Kakegurui and Ultraman Ginga and Dark Lugiel in Ultraman Ginga.

Career

Sugita was born in Ranzan, Saitama. When he was in elementary school and watched the TV anime Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, he noticed that the character Hyunckel had a much lower voice than he had imagined from reading the original manga, and thought he was "still cool," but the moment he said his special move, Sugita realized that it was the same voice as Phoenix Ikki from Saint Seiya (Hideyuki Hori). In junior high school, he was a member of the tennis club and served as the head of the club, while in high school, he joined the Shorinji Kempo club (1-dan). When he was a child, he wanted to be a temple priest, and in high school he wanted to be a home economics teacher, a confectioner, or a designer. At the time, when he thought about writing a script for a stage performance at a school event and added sound effects and background music to a recording of his own voice, his older brother heard it and suggested that he try to find a job that made use of him voice and speech, which led him to become a voice actor. While still in high school, he won the Myuras & Animage Award at the Voice Actor Spring School sponsored by the Japan Narration Actor Institute, and entered the Myuras Actors School (now the Vocal and Dance Division of the Japan Narration Actor Institute), while at the same time belonging to the Myuras entertainment agency. At the age of 17, he made his voice acting debut as a gift announcement narrator for Kamen Rider on SKY PerfecTV!.

In 1999, when he was a prep school student, he got his first regular role in an anime production with Cybuster, and continued his voice acting career while studying until he graduated from university. After the dissolution of Myuras in 2001, he joined Atomic Monkey after a period of freelancing, and made his first leading role playing Hideki Motosuwa in the anime series Chobits.

Sugita played the leading roles in both Gintama (Gintoki Sakata) and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Kyon), greatly increasing his fame. In 2009, he won the Best Actor in supporting role award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards. In October 2013, he won the Male Voice Actor Award at the "Newtype x Machi★Asobi Anime Awards 2013", and his role in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Chamber K6821, also won the Mascot Character Award.

In 2010, he starred in a live-action film Wonderful World, alongside Mamoru Miyano, Tomokazu Seki, Rikiya Koyama, Yuka Hirata, Showtaro Morikubo and Daisuke Namikawa. On April 1, 2020, Sugita left Atomic Monkey, the company he had been affiliated with for many years, and established AGRS Inc. with Kai Itō, a lawyer well versed in the entertainment industry, as an advisor and himself as the representative director.

Eiichiro Oda (Japanese: 尾田 栄一郎, Hepburn: Oda Eiichirō, born January 1, 1975) is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series One Piece (1997–present). With more than 490 million tankōbon copies in circulation worldwide, One Piece is both the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume, in turn making Oda one of the best-selling fiction authors. The series' popularity resulted in Oda being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga.

Early life

Eiichiro Oda was born on January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto, Japan. He said that at the age of four he resolved to become a manga artist in order to avoid having to get a "real job". His biggest influence is Akira Toriyama and his series Dragon Ball. He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled Vicky the Viking. He submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's classic wrestling manga Kinnikuman. Pandaman was not only used in a chapter of the manga but would later return as a recurring cameo character in Oda's own works.

Career

At the age of 17, Oda submitted his work Wanted! and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant manga artist/assistant to Shinobu Kaitani's series Suizan Police Gang before moving to Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan and Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he began working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new manga artists. Watsuki credits Oda for helping create the character Honjō Kamatari who appears in Rurouni Kenshin.

During this time, Oda drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories called "Romance Dawn", which were published in Akamaru Jump and Weekly Shōnen Jump respectively in late 1996. "Romance Dawn" featured Monkey D. Luffy as the protagonist, who then became the protagonist of One Piece.

In 1997, One Piece began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump and has become not only one of the most popular manga in Japan, but the best-selling manga series of all time. It sold 100 million collected tankōbon volumes by February 2005, over 200 million by February 2011, had 320,866,000 copies printed worldwide by December 2014, 430 million volumes in circulation worldwide as of October 2017, 440 million copies sold as of May 2018[13] and 450 million in print as of March 2019.

Additionally, individual volumes of One Piece have broken publishing records in Japan. Volume 56 received the highest initial print run of any manga, 2.85 million copies, in 2009. Volume 57's print of 3 million in 2010 was the highest first print for any book in Japan, not just manga. A record that was broken several times by subsequent volumes and currently held by 67's 4.05 million initial printing in 2012. In 2013, the series won the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award Grand Prize, alongside Kimuchi Yokoyama's Nekodarake Nice.

In a 2008 poll, conducted by marketing research firm Oricon, Oda was elected fifth most favorite manga artists of Japan. He shared the place with Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter. In their 2010 poll on the Mangaka that Changed the History of Manga, Oda came in fourth.

For the tenth One Piece animated theatrical film, Strong World, Oda created the film's story, drew over 120 drawings for guidance and insisted Mr. Children provide the theme song. Additionally, a special chapter of the manga was created and included in tankōbon volume 0, which was given free to attendees of the film and also contained his drawings for the film.

Oda and Akira Toriyama created a 2007 crossover one-shot called Cross Epoch, that contains characters from Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Oda's One Piece. In 2013, they each designed a Gaist character for the video game Gaist Crusher.

Personal life

When he was teenager, his favorite television show was Vicky the Viking. This started his fascination of pirates and around his second year of junior high he began drawing manga, developing ideas and sketches for a pirate serial that would many years later become One Piece.

Oda regarded many mangaka both as his friend and rival. Among these were his fellow assistants under Nobuhiro Watsuki; and they are Hiroyuki Takei, and Mikio Itō. Still many years later, they remained good friends. Another mangaka is Masashi Kishimoto. For the title page illustration of One Piece chapter 766, which ran in 2014's 50th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump alongside the final two chapters of Kishimoto's Naruto, Oda included a hidden message and other tributes in the art.[28] Kishimoto himself also made a tribute in the ending of Naruto where the character Boruto Uzumaki makes a drawing of the Straw Hat Jolly Roger on a mountain. Upon the release of Chapter 1000 of One Piece, several of Oda's fellow mangaka rivals paid tribute in the author's comment section of Shonen Jump by congratulating Oda for achieving this milestone.

According to Oda himself and his manga editors, he is an ardent worker, perfectionist, and sleeps only three hours per day during a typical work week.

He was hospitalized for a peritonsillar abscess in 2013 and later discharged in the hospital after two weeks. After a year, he underwent surgery for tonsillectomy to completely cure his condition.

Oda gifted Kumamoto Prefecture 800 million yen (US $8 million) in 2018 after it suffered a damaging earthquake in 2016 that had affected its iconic Kumamoto Castle. Oda's 800 million yen donation was offered in two separate gifts, one for 500 million yen under Luffy's name and a second donation of 300 million yen. Eiichiro Oda has long been a supporter of earthquake-stricken areas, writing supportive messages, contributing art for local products, and participating in the ONE PIECE Kumamoto Revival Project.

Daisuke Ono (小野 大輔, Ono Daisuke, born May 4, 1978) is a Japanese voice actor and singer who won the 4th and 9th Seiyu Awards for best lead actor for his role as Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, Jotaro Kujo in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Shukuro Tsukishima in Bleach, as well as "Best Personalities" at the 9th Seiyu Awards. Other notable roles include Erwin Smith in Attack on Titan, Silver the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog, Drole in The Seven Deadly Sins, Shizuo Heiwajima in Durarara!!, Jyushimatsu in Osomatsu-san, Shintarō Midorima in Kuroko's Basketball, Subaru Asahina in Brothers Conflict, Hades Aidoneus in Kamigami no Asobi, Killer T Cell in Cells at Work! and Ushiromiya Battler in Umineko When They Cry and Nobuyuki Sanada in Samurai Warriors 4 and Warriors Orochi 4. Ono was also featured in The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match as Nameless and the announcer of the game. He hosts radio show Dear Girl: Stories along with voice actor Hiroshi Kamiya.

Biography

Ono graduated from Kōchi High School, Nihon University College of Art (Department of Broadcasting), and Aoni Coaching School Sunday Class. At university, he initially studied TV show production, but failed to succeed in directing a large group of people. Later, he switched to radio program production, and during the creation of a radio drama, became a performer due to a shortage of staff, which led him to pursue voice acting. In 2007, he started his music career under his own name with the mini-album Hinemosu. Since 2008, he has been performing at the "Original Entertainment Paradise" held at the end of every year as one of the hosts and the leader. The other hosts are Showtaro Morikubo, Kenichi Suzumura, and Takuma Terashima.

In 2008, he won the 2nd Seiyu Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and won the 4th award in 2010. In 2011, he won the Grand Prix at the 33rd Animage Anime Grand Prix in the voice acting category.

In 2015, Ono won the 9th Seiyu Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Personality, the BEST COMFORT RADIO Healing Radio Award for the TV anime Barakamon's web radio Radikamon, which he was a personality for at the 1st Aniradi Awards, and the Voice Actor Award at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2015, Anime of the Year Category.

In February 2016, Ono left Mausu Promotion, to which he belonged for many years, and started his freelance career.

Saori Hayami (早見 沙織, Hayami Saori, born May 29, 1991) is a Japanese voice actress and singer. She is represented by the agency I'm Enterprise.[1] As a singer, she is signed to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Japan. Hayami won the 10th Seiyu Awards for Best Supporting Actress. Her major voice roles include Yukino Yukinoshita in My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Yumeko Jabami in Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler, Musubi and Yume in Sekirei, Kamisato Ayaka in Genshin Impact, Ayase Aragaki in Oreimo, Shirayuki in Snow White with the Red Hair, Yui Kusanagi in Ludere Deorum, Cardia in Code: Realize − Guardian of Rebirth, Miyuki Shiba in The Irregular at Magic High School, Himawari Uzumaki in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Ruby Rose in RWBY, Shinoa Hiiragi in Seraph of the End, Yotsugi Ononoki in Monogatari, Shōko Nishimiya in A Silent Voice, Chiriko "Tsuruko" Tsurumi in Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Ushiwakamaru in Fate/Grand Order, Shinobu Kochou in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Rachel in Tower of God, and Yamato in One Piece.

Biography

Hayami became interested in voice acting while attending elementary school. In 2004, she attended junior class of Nihon Narration Engi Kenkyūjo, a voice acting training school. Her career began when she passed an audition for I'm Enterprise in 2006, at the end of her second year in training school. Her voice acting debut was in the Indian Summer drama CD. In 2007, she made her anime debut and landed her first major role as Momoka Kawakabe, the main heroine in Touka Gettan. Since then, she has been active in voicing many other characters in anime-related media and other voice acting works. She placed #2 in 2015 Newtype x Machi Asobi Anime Awards for Best Voice Actress while her character Yukino Yukinoshita won Best Female Character Award. She has been hosting her own radio show Hayami Saori no Free Style since 2011 which won Best Comfort Radio in general category at 3rd Aniradi Awards in 2017.

Hayami is known for her singing mainly through her work performing anime and character theme songs, such as Kaede Takagaki in The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls francise. Her debut single, "Yasashii Kibou" (やさしい希望, lit. "Bright Hopes") was released on August 12, 2015. She wrote the lyrics for all the songs in the single. The title song was used as opening theme for anime television Snow White with the Red Hair in which she voiced Shirayuki. Her second single is a double A-side single "Installation/Sono Koe ga Chizu ni Naru" (その声が地図になる, lit. "The Voice Will Become A Map") was released on February 3, 2015. She also took part in writing and composing both songs. The song "Sono Koe ga Chizu ni Naru" is used as the opening theme for the second season of Snow White with the Red Hair. Her first album Live Love Laugh was released on May 25, 2016. She then released a mini album live for LIVE bundled Limited Edition Live Blu-ray/DVD and CD from her first Japanese concert tour Live Love Laugh on December 21, 2016.

An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role," which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.

Formerly, in ancient Greece and the medieval world, and in England at the time of William Shakespeare, only men could become actors, and women's roles were generally played by men or boys. While Ancient Rome did allow female stage performers, only a small minority of them were given speaking parts. The commedia dell’arte of Italy, however, allowed professional women to perform early on; Lucrezia Di Siena, whose name is on a contract of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonnas and the first well-documented actresses in Italy (and in Europe). After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear onstage in England. In modern times, particularly in pantomime and some operas, women occasionally play the roles of boys or young men.

History

The first recorded case of a performing actor occurred in 534 BC (though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped onto the stage at the Theatre Dionysus to become the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Before Thespis' act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. The exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of situation comedies, to high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies.

As the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, and other entertainments were very popular. From the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder. Small nomadic bands of actors traveled around Europe throughout the period, performing wherever they could find an audience; there is no evidence that they produced anything but crude scenes. Traditionally, actors were not of high status; therefore, in the Early Middle Ages, traveling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. Early Middle Ages actors were denounced by the Church during the Dark Ages, as they were viewed as dangerous, immoral, and pagan. In many parts of Europe, traditional beliefs of the region and time meant actors could not receive a Christian burial.

In the Early Middle Ages, churches in Europe began staging dramatized versions of biblical events. By the middle of the 11th century, liturgical drama had spread from Russia to Scandinavia to Italy. The Feast of Fools encouraged the development of comedy. In the Late Middle Ages, plays were produced in 127 towns. These vernacular Mystery plays often contained comedy, with actors playing devils, villains, and clowns. The majority of actors in these plays were drawn from the local population. Amateur performers in England were exclusively male, but other countries had female performers.

There were several secular plays staged in the Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. At the end of the Late Middle Ages, professional actors began to appear in England and Europe. Richard III and Henry VII both maintained small companies of professional actors. Beginning in the mid-16th century, Commedia dell'arte troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe for centuries. Commedia dell'arte was an actor-centred theatre, requiring little scenery and very few props. Plays were loose frameworks that provided situations, complications, and outcome of the action, around which the actors improvised. The plays used stock characters. A troupe typically consisted of 13 to 14 members. Most actors were paid a share of the play's profits roughly equivalent to the sizes of their roles.

Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays, "morality plays", and the "university drama" that attempted to recreate Athenian tragedy. The Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte, as well as the elaborate masques frequently presented at court, also contributed to the shaping of public theatre. Since before the reign of Elizabeth I, companies of players were attached to households of leading aristocrats and performed seasonally in various locations. These became the foundation for the professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage.

The development of the theatre and opportunities for acting ceased when Puritan opposition to the stage banned the performance of all plays within London. Puritans viewed the theatre as immoral. The re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signaled a renaissance of English drama. English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710 are collectively called "Restoration comedy". Restoration comedy is notorious for its sexual explicitness. At this point, women were allowed for the first time to appear on the English stage, exclusively in female roles. This period saw the introduction of the first professional actresses and the rise of the first celebrity actors.

19th century

In the 19th century, the negative reputation of actors was largely reversed, and acting became an honored, popular profession and art. The rise of the actor as celebrity provided the transition, as audiences flocked to their favorite "stars". A new role emerged for the actor-managers, who formed their own companies and controlled the actors, the productions, and the financing. When successful, they built up a permanent clientele that flocked to their productions. They could enlarge their audience by going on tour across the country, performing a repertoire of well-known plays, such as those by Shakespeare. The newspapers, private clubs, pubs, and coffee shops rang with lively debates evaluating the relative merits of the stars and the productions. Henry Irving (1838-1905) was the most successful of the British actor-managers. Irving was renowned for his Shakespearean roles, and for such innovations as turning out the house lights so that attention could focus more on the stage and less on the audience. His company toured across Britain, as well as Europe and the United States, demonstrating the power of star actors and celebrated roles to attract enthusiastic audiences. His knighthood in 1895 indicated full acceptance into the higher circles of British society.

20th century

By the early 20th century, the economics of large-scale productions displaced the actor-manager model. It was too hard to find people who combined a genius at acting as well as management, so specialization divided the roles as stage managers and later theatre directors emerged. Financially, much larger capital was required to operate out of a major city. The solution was corporate ownership of chains of theatres, such as by the Theatrical Syndicate, Edward Laurillard, and especially The Shubert Organization. By catering to tourists, theaters in large cities increasingly favored long runs of highly popular plays, especially musicals. Big name stars became even more essential.

Techniques

• Classical acting is a philosophy of acting that integrates the expression of the body, voice, imagination, personalizing, improvisation, external stimuli, and script analysis. It is based on the theories and systems of select classical actors and directors including Konstantin Stanislavski and Michel Saint-Denis.
• In Stanislavski's system, also known as Stanislavski's method, actors draw upon their own feelings and experiences to convey the "truth" of the character they portray. Actors puts themselves in the mindset of the character, finding things in common to give a more genuine portrayal of the character.
• Method acting is a range of techniques based on for training actors to achieve better characterizations of the characters they play, as formulated by Lee Strasberg. Strasberg's method is based upon the idea that to develop an emotional and cognitive understanding of their roles, actors should use their own experiences to identify personally with their characters. It is based on aspects of Stanislavski's system. Other acting techniques are also based on Stanislavski's ideas, such as those of Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, but these are not considered "method acting".
• Meisner technique requires the actor to focus totally on the other actor as though he or she is real and they only exist in that moment. This is a method that makes the actors in the scene seem more authentic to the audience. It is based on the principle that acting finds its expression in people's response to other people and circumstances. Is it based on Stanislavski's system.

As the opposite sex

Formerly, in some societies, only men could become actors. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on stage; nevertheless, women did perform in Ancient Rome, and again entered the stage in the Commedia dell'arte in Italy in the 16th century; Lucrezia Di Siena became the perhaps first professional actress since Ancient Rome. France and Spain, too, also had female actors in the 16th century. In William Shakespeare's England, however, women's roles were generally played by men or boys.

When an eighteen-year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage. Previously, Angelica Martinelli, a member of a visiting Italian Commedia dell' arte company, did perform in England as early as 1578, but such foreign guest appearances had been rare exceptions and there had been no professional English actresses in England. This prohibition ended during the reign of Charles II in part because he enjoyed watching actresses on stage. Specifically, Charles II issued letters patent to Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, granting them the monopoly right to form two London theatre companies to perform "serious" drama, and the letters patent were reissued in 1662 with revisions allowing actresses to perform for the first time.

According to the OED, the first occurrence of the term actress was in 1608 and is ascribed to Middleton. In the 19th century, many viewed women in acting negatively, as actresses were often courtesans and associated with promiscuity. Despite these prejudices, the 19th century also saw the first female acting "stars", most notably Sarah Bernhardt.

In Japan, onnagata, or men taking on female roles, were used in kabuki theatre when women were banned from performing on stage during the Edo period; this convention continues. In some forms of Chinese drama such as Beijing opera, men traditionally performed all the roles, including female roles, while in Shaoxing opera women often play all roles, including male ones.

In modern times, women occasionally played the roles of boys or young men. For example, the stage role of Peter Pan is traditionally played by a woman, as are most principal boys in British pantomime. Opera has several "breeches roles" traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.

Women playing male roles are uncommon in film, with notable exceptions. In 1982, Stina Ekblad played the mysterious Ismael Retzinsky in Fanny and Alexander, and Linda Hunt received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. In 2007, Cate Blanchett was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Jude Quinn, a fictionalized representation of Bob Dylan in the 1960s, in I'm Not There.

In the 2000s, women playing men in live theatre is particularly common in presentations of older plays, such as Shakespearean works with large numbers of male characters in roles where gender is inconsequential.

Having an actor dress as the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long-standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently used device in most of the Carry On films. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.

Occasionally, the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a woman acting as a man—who then pretends to be a woman, such as Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In It's Pat: The Movie, film-watchers never learn the gender of the androgynous main characters Pat and Chris (played by Julia Sweeney and Dave Foley). Similarly, in the aforementioned example of The Marriage of Figaro, there is a scene in which Cherubino (a male character portrayed by a woman) dresses up and acts like a woman; the other characters in the scene are aware of a single level of gender role obfuscation, while the audience is aware of two levels.

A few modern roles are played by a member of the opposite sex to emphasize the gender fluidity of the role. Edna Turnblad in Hairspray was played by Divine in the 1988 original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Eddie Redmayne was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Lili Elbe (a trans woman) in 2015's The Danish Girl.

The term actress

In contrast to Ancient Greek theatre, Ancient Roman theatre did allow female performers. While the majority of them were seldom employed in speaking roles but rather for dancing, there was a minority of actresses in Rome employed in speaking roles, and also those who achieved wealth, fame and recognition for their art, such as Eucharis, Dionysia, Galeria Copiola and Fabia Arete, and they also formed their own acting guild, the Sociae Mimae, which was evidently quite wealthy. The profession seemingly died out in late antiquity.

While women did not begin to perform onstage in England until the second half of the 17th-century, they did appear in Italy, Spain and France from the late 16th-century onward. Lucrezia Di Siena, whose name is on an acting contract in Rome from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonnas and the first well documented actresses in Italy (and Europe).

After 1660 in England, when women first started to appear on stage, the terms actor or actress were initially used interchangeably for female performers, but later, influenced by the French actrice, actress became the commonly used term for women in theater and film. The etymology is a simple derivation from actor with -ess added. When referring to groups of performers of both sexes, actors is preferred.

Within the profession, the re-adoption of the neutral term dates to the post-war period of the 1950 and '60s, when the contributions of women to cultural life in general were being reviewed. When The Observer and The Guardian published their new joint style guide in 2010, it stated "Use ['actor'] for both male and female actors; do not use actress except when in name of award, e.g. Oscar for best actress". The guide's authors stated that "actress comes into the same category as authoress, comedienne, manageress, 'lady doctor', 'male nurse' and similar obsolete terms that date from a time when professions were largely the preserve of one sex (usually men)." (See male as norm.) "As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper: 'An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor – I can play anything.'" The UK performers' union Equity has no policy on the use of "actor" or "actress". An Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the "...subject divides the profession". In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that "Actress" remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female recipients (e.g., Academy Award for Best Actress).

With regard to the cinema of the United States, the gender-neutral term "player" was common in film in the silent film era and the early days of the Motion Picture Production Code, but in the 2000s in a film context, it is generally deemed archaic.[citation needed] However, "player" remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a theatre group or company, such as the American Players, the East West Players, etc. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as "players".

Pay equity

In 2015, Forbes reported that "...just 21 of the 100 top-grossing films of 2014 featured a female lead or co-lead, while only 28.1% of characters in 100 top-grossing films were female...". "In the U.S., there is an "industry-wide [gap] in salaries of all scales. On average, white women earn 78 cents to every dollar a white man makes, while Hispanic women earn 56 cents to a white male's dollar, black women 64 cents and Native American women just 59 cents to that." Forbes' analysis of US acting salaries in 2013 determined that the "...men on Forbes' list of top-paid actors for that year made 2 times as much money as the top-paid actresses. That means that Hollywood's best-compensated actresses made just 40 cents for every dollar that the best-compensated men made."

Types

Actors working in theatre, film, television, and radio have to learn specific skills. Techniques that work well in one type of acting may not work well in another type of acting.

In theatre

To act on stage, actors need to learn the stage directions that appear in the script, such as "Stage Left" and "Stage Right". These directions are based on the actor's point of view as he or she stands on the stage facing the audience. Actors also have to learn the meaning of the stage directions "Upstage" (away from the audience) and "Downstage" (towards the audience) Theatre actors need to learn blocking, which is "...where and how an actor moves on the stage during a play". Most scripts specify some blocking. The Director also gives instructions on blocking, such as crossing the stage or picking up and using a prop.

Some theater actors need to learn stage combat, which is simulated fighting on stage. Actors may have to simulate hand-to-hand fighting or sword-fighting. Actors are coached by fight directors, who help them learn the choreographed sequence of fight actions.

In film

Silent films

From 1894 to the late 1920s, movies were silent films. Silent film actors emphasized body language and facial expression, so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or campy. The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience. Vaudeville theatre was an especially popular origin for many American silent film actors. The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from director Marshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen.

Pioneering film directors in Europe and the United States recognized the different limitations and freedoms of the mediums of stage and screen by the early 1910s. Silent films became less vaudevillian in the mid-1910s, as the differences between stage and screen became apparent. Due to the work of directors such as D W Griffith, cinematography became less stage-like, and the then-revolutionary close-up shot allowed subtle and naturalistic acting. In America, D.W. Griffith's company Biograph Studios, became known for its innovative direction and acting, conducted to suit the cinema rather than the stage. Griffith realized that theatrical acting did not look good on film and required his actors and actresses to go through weeks of film acting training.

Lillian Gish has been called film's "first true actress" for her work in the period, as she pioneered new film performing techniques, recognizing the crucial differences between stage and screen acting. Directors such as Albert Capellani and Maurice Tourneur began to insist on naturalism in their films. By the mid-1920s many American silent films had adopted a more naturalistic acting style, though not all actors and directors accepted naturalistic, low-key acting straight away; as late as 1927, films featuring expressionistic acting styles, such as Metropolis, were still being released.[35]

According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of Wisconsin, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film. This is mainly attributed to the influx of emigrants from the Weimar Republic, "including film directors, producers, cameramen, lighting and stage technicians, as well as actors and actresses".

The advent of sound in film

Film actors have to learn to get used to and be comfortable with a camera being in front of them.[38] Film actors need to learn to find and stay on their "mark." This is a position on the floor marked with tape. This position is where the lights and camera focus are optimized. Film actors also need to learn how to prepare well and perform well on-screen tests. Screen tests are a filmed audition of part of the script.

Unlike theater actors, who develop characters for repeat performances, film actors lack continuity, forcing them to come to all scenes (sometimes shot in reverse of the order in which they ultimately appear) with a fully developed character already.

"Since film captures even the smallest gesture and magnifies it..., cinema demands a less flamboyant and stylized bodily performance from the actor than does the theater." "The performance of emotion is the most difficult aspect of film acting to master: ...the film actor must rely on subtle facial ticks, quivers, and tiny lifts of the eyebrow to create a believable character." Some theatre stars "...have made the theater-to-cinema transition quite successfully (Laurence Olivier, Glenn Close, and Julie Andrews, for instance), others have not..."

In television

"On a television set, there are typically several cameras angled at the set. Actors who are new to on-screen acting can get confused about which camera to look into." TV actors need to learn to use lav mics (Lavaliere microphones). TV actors need to understand the concept of "frame". "The term frame refers to the area that the camera's lens is capturing." Within the acting industry, there are four types of television roles one could land on a show. Each type varies in prominence, frequency of appearance, and pay. The first is known as a series regular—the main actors on the show as part of the permanent cast. Actors in recurring roles are under contract to appear in multiple episodes of a series. A co-star role is a small speaking role that usually only appears in one episode. A guest star is a larger role than a co-star role, and the character is often the central focus of the episode or integral to the plot.

In radio

Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension."

Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s, however, radio drama lost some of its popularity, and in some countries has never regained large audiences. However, recordings of OTR (old-time radio) survive today in the audio archives of collectors and museums, as well as several online sites such as Internet Archive.

As of 2011, radio drama has a minimal presence on terrestrial radio in the United States. Much of American radio drama is restricted to rebroadcasts or podcasts of programs from previous decades. However, other nations still have thriving traditions of radio drama. In the United Kingdom, for example, the BBC produces and broadcasts hundreds of new radio plays each year on Radio 3, Radio 4, and Radio 4 Extra. Podcasting has also offered the means of creating new radio dramas, in addition to the distribution of vintage programs.

The terms "audio drama" or "audio theatre" are sometimes used synonymously with "radio drama" with one possible distinction: audio drama or audio theatre may not necessarily be intended specifically for broadcast on radio. Audio drama, whether newly produced or OTR classics, can be found on CDs, cassette tapes, podcasts, webcasts, and conventional broadcast radio.

Thanks to advances in digital recording and Internet distribution, radio drama is experiencing a revival.

Given name: 裕貴

Family name: 梶

Alternate names: Yuki Kaji

Blood type: O

Height: 170 cm

Nicknames: Kajikaji, Kajiyan, Yuu-tan, Kazzui, Kaji-kyun

Pets: hamster named Shiru

Born in Tokyo, Grew up in Saitama. Has a younger sister. He moved from Artsvision to VIMS on October 1, 2013, and his official site has been shut down on May 21, 2015.

Married to fellow seiyuu Ayana Taketatsu on June 23, 2019.

Awards:

- Best New Actor Award at the 3rd Seiyuu Awards in 2009

- Best Male Lead Role Award at the 7th Seiyuu Awards in 2013

- Best Male Lead Role Award at the 8th Seiyuu Awards in 2014

Given name: 真守

Family name: 宮野

Height: 182 cm

Weight: 70 kg

Blood type: B

Hobbies: singing, soccer

Skills: harmonica, harp

Mamoru Miyano won Best Voice Actor award in the Second Seiyuu Awards for leading roles of Kida Masaomi (Durarara!!), Setsuna F Seiei (Mobile Suit Gundam 00) and Hakugen Rikuson (Koutetsu Sangokushi). He married in late 2008; 2-3 months after his announcement, their son was born.

Given name: 香菜

Family name: 花澤

Alternate names: HanaKana, KanaHana

Hometown: Tokyo, Japan

Height: 156 cm

Blood type: AB

Kana Hanazawa used to be a junior idol in Akiba where hundreds of people came to watch her, which is how she got her breakthrough for her acting career in commercials before becoming a voice actor.

The Office Osawa talent agency represents her.

Married to the voice actor Kensho Ono.

Given name: 浩史

Family name: 神谷

Alternate names: ヒロC, HiroC, Kamiyan

Height: 167 cm (5'6")

Weight: 53 kg (117 lbs)

Blood type: A

Kamiya Hiroshi went to Aoni Juku and decided to pursue voice acting. Since then, he's been affiliated with Aoni Production from his debut in 1994 to present.

Kamiya Hiroshi hosts several radio programs, one of the oldest and most prevalent programs he hosts together with a fellow seiyuu Ono Daisuke is Kamiya Hiroshi Ono Daisuke no DearGirl: Stories (神谷浩史・小野大輔のDearGirl～Stories～) since April 2007. The program they hosted together won "Best Personality Awards" in the 9th Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2015.

He and Ono Daisuke are vocalists of MasochistiC Ono BanD (MOB) that debuted in Nippon Budoukan in 2013 through the DearGirl: Stories Festival Carnival Matsuri. MOB went on hiatus in 2015 but the band announced their coming back on the 10th-anniversary celebration of his and Ono Daisuke's radio program, that was held on July 25, 2016.

In May 2010, he and Miyu Irino banded a Kiramune-unit called KAmiYU, for Mokei Senshi Gunpla Builders Beginning G theme song. First Mini-album "link-up" was released on August 3, 2011.

Awards:

- 2nd Seiyuu Awards (2008) - Best Supporting Actor Award

- 3rd Seiyuu Awards (2009) - Best Actor and Best Personality Awards

- Tokyo Anime Awards (2010) - Voice Actor Award

- 6th Seiyuu Awards (2012) - Most Votes Award

- 7th Seiyuu Awards (2013) - Most Votes Award

- 8th Seiyuu Awards (2014) - Most Votes Award

- 9th Seiyuu Awards (2015) - Best Personality and Most Votes Awards

- 10th Seiyuu Awards (2016) - Most Votes Award - winning the award for 5 consecutive times earned him induction into Seiyuu Awards' Hall of Fame