Ai Maeda (前田 愛, Maeda Ai, born 4 October 1983 in Tokyo) is a Japanese actress, singer and model.

Biography

Maeda is notable for performing Shiori Kitano in the 2003 film Battle Royale II: Requiem, as well as for voicing the title role in the anime series Kino's Journey (for which she also performed a theme song to the series, "The Beautiful World"). Her younger sister is Aki Maeda. Ai Maeda came into the spotlight when she was only 8 years old, appearing in a McDonald's commercial. From there her career started off. She modeled along with her sister Aki Maeda when they were young until she was 16/17 years old, when she starred in many movies and TV series.

Maeda is skilled in the piano, Tate (fighting battles on the movie set) and the English language (Ai studied abroad in Canada for a year in 2000). She starred in the 3-D Ghost horror film Shock Labyrinth 3D, which was directed by Takashi Shimizu.

She is a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University (Faculty of Economics, International Politics and Communications).

In 2009, Maeda married Kabuki actor Nakamura Kankurō VI.