Aya Uchida

Uchida Aya was born on July 23, 1986 in Outa City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Her common voice actress nickname is "Ucchi". She voices Minami Kotori in Love Live!.

Her tagline during live concerts is "Kotori no oyatsu ni shicchau yo!", first used during the 4th live. It appeared once again during the 5th live, where she used it for the encore video animation and also during an emcee line-swap with Pile.

Background
Uchida Aya's family consists of her parents, a younger sister and her. Their family raises a pet cat named KiKi.

As a child, she really liked Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon and wished that she could be like Sailor Moon. She was also a fan of works by Ghibli and Disney, often re-watching them on videotape. After coming to know the profession of voice acting during middle school and doing some research into it, becoming a voice actress became her goal.

After graduating from high school, Uchida Aya entered Yoyogi Animation School, and then enrolled into JTB Entertainment Academy as part of its pioneer batch. During her time there in 2008, she made her debut as a voice actress on TV anime Oden-kun.

During the early stages of her career she supported herself with part-time jobs such as being sales staff at departmental stores, production line quality inspector at factories, and sometimes even menial labor carrying cardboard boxes. The key criteria she had in choosing her jobs were that they had to be shift-based and versatile such that she could report to her entertainment office any time she needed to.

On November 12, 2014, she made her major debut as a singer with the release of her first full album アップルミント (Appuruminto) under the Columbia label.

In June 2015, she released her first photo-book patina.

On July 22, 2015, her second album Blooming! was released under the Columbia label.

On March 31, 2016, she left JTB Entertainment and joined Across Entertainment on April 2016.

Personality & Hobbies
Uchida Aya describes herself as a reserved and timid person. As a child, she used to imagine various things/play make-believe, have conversations with herself and make things, and claims she is still pretty much the same person she was. She also likes working, so she didn't feel menial jobs were tough at all back during the early stages of her career.

She loves eating and has no food she dislikes in particular. Her favorite snacks include rice crackers, potato chips and rusk, generally food with crispy and crunchy textures. She can hold her liquor well, and her favorite drinks are beer and red wine.

Her hobbies include making paper-cranes, accessories and sweets such as Gateau Chocolate, Decoration Roll Cakes, and Apple Pies. She also collects bath goods and likes reading books as well as making things in general. Her special skills include hair arrangement. Her qualifications include a regular driver's license.

In an interview she claims she is not very good at making friends, but she is close to Murakawa Rie whom she co-starred with in Vivired Operation. She also finds herself often cast as characters that are "The Number One Idiot" so she believes that she may be a good fit for those characters.

When stressed by work, she binges on food and alcohol to relieve stress.

Uchida Aya is a fan of Ikue Ohtani.

Trivia

 * On November 10, 2014, she was appointed as a "tourism special envoy" for the entire Gunma Prefecture.
 * She thinks performing as part of Love Live! is one of the most difficult things she has had to do as a voice actress, as she did not expect dancing to be part of her career. She is a lot more confident in her dancing capabilities after all the difficult and tiring practice.
 * Her most enjoyable part of being a seiyuu is reading fan-mail, which really cheers her up.
 * She appears to be close friends with Nitta Emi and Kusuda Aina; probably because they are all voice actresses who had their first major debut in the voice acting industry with Love Live!.
 * Songs she sings well on the karaoke:『幽☆遊☆白書』OPの「微笑みの爆弾」
 * During live concerts, she is often caught on camera drinking water while the rest are talking. Whenever this was pointed out jokingly, she would reply that the water was delicious.
 * This is even possibly lamp-shaded during a scene in Love Live! The School Idol Movie, where at the start of dinner in a New York restaurant, Kotori is the only one with a cup that's almost empty while everyone else's was still full.
 * Because of this, there was even a show that features her drinking water.

Gallery
Pamphlets & Magazine Scans=