Pile

Eriko Hori was born on May 2, 1988 in Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Her stage name is "Pile", which is a material used for towels. The meaning of her stage name is: "Wrapped with warmth, an artist that will be loved by everyone". A common voice actress nickname amongst fans is "Pile-sama", though she is often called "Pai-chan" by her peers such as Yoshino Nanjo and Yurika Kubo. She voices Maki Nishikino, one of the main characters in Love Live!.

Her call-and-response during concerts begins with "Maki-chan~", and is then followed by a word that either describes Maki or the stage where they are performing, such as "Kawaii" or "Saitama" (the name of the arena). The accurate response for the audience is then to recite the Japanese consonants beginning with the same first letter, such as "ka-ki-ku-ke-ko" or "sa-shi-su-se-so" respectively. This is in reference to a vocal exercise Maki voiced in one of the earlier radio dramas.

Background
Pile was born from a Japanese father and a Korean mother, which makes her a "half" in Japanese society. Due to her family background, she is fluent in both Japanese and Korean, and very familiar with English in contrast to most Japanese. As a child, she wanted to be a singer and ballerina.

She graduated from Shinagawa Girls' School, and attended a college in Tokyo. She is affiliated with SPACEY Inc.

From 2005 to 2006, she began taking on minor roles in TV series and films.

In 2006, she then participated in the nation-wide Asian Dolls Audition, and was picked from amongst the 700 applicants.

In 2007, she made her debut as a singer with the single "Your is All..." under Columbia.

In 2010, she began her career as a voice actress with Love Live!.

In 2013, she formed a singing duo with Aina Kusuda under the name Please&Secret. She released two indie albums at Comiket titled, Lovely Box and Lovely Box 2, in the same year.

In August 2014, she formed a singing duo with Riho Iida under the name 4to6 and released their first single.

In December 2014, she received a second debut under the Victor Entertainment label with her new single "Densetsu no FLARE".

In March 2015, her album Jewel Vox was released under the Tower Records label. This was her first album under a major record label.

In April 2015, her single "Kimi ga Kureta KISEKI" was released under the Victor Entertainment label.

On December 2, 2017, she held her live show "Pile Live at Budokan~ Pile featuring Love Live" where Emi Nitta was the guest performer. The µ's songs that were performed were; No brand girls, Music S.T.A.R.T!!, Silent tonight, Sore wa Bokutachi no Kiseki, Aishiteru Banzai!, LOVELESS WORLD, and Snow halation. Suzuko Mimori also attended the concert as a spectator.

Personality & Hobbies
Pile believes her own strongest points are her long patience and her laughter. She's confident in her own abilities to speak Korean, dance, as well as her smile due to her teeth's good alignment. She believes her weakest point is that she considers herself to be a bit of a dork. This was demonstrated during Comiket 86 where she was due to make an appearance, only to mistake the location as Makuhari Messe instead of Big Sight. Also, during the 5th live's closing emcee, she made a mistake in recounting when they first performed "Bokura wa Ima no Naka de", much to the rest of the team's amusement.

She loves simple and light food, and dislikes food with strong or heavy tastes. Her favorite color is pink. She is happiest when she is not alone. She is a self-described masochist.

Her hobbies include cooking, shopping and watching sports. She also has a tendency to indulge often in beauty treatments and luxury products, evident by the posts on both her Twitter account and weblog. Her favorite salon at the moment appears to be RISEL Hair Salon Shibuya, often receiving styling and color treatments there exclusively.

Her skills include dance (ballet, jazz, hip-hop, cheer), gospel (lead vocal), acting, baton-twirling, speaking Korean as well as English pronunciation.

When stressed by work, she talks to her dogs to relieve stress.

She's very much dedicated to her family and visits them in Seoul more often than not.

Other Data

 * For a collection of translated interviews and videos, please refer to Translated Voice Actress Content.

Etymology

 * The name Eriko means "picture, painting" (絵) (e), "pear" (梨) (ri) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Eriko's surname Hori means "moat, ditch, canal" (堀).

Trivia

 * She is close friends with Aina Kusuda and Emi Nitta.
 * She is a heavy fan of the NicoMaki pairing alongside Sora Tokui, though her relationship with the other voice actress does not appear to be as close as to other members of the team, possibly a result of a lack of collaboration opportunities. Nevertheless, BiBi as a unit have said they get along well during the interview compiled in the 5th Live's pamphlet, and both Yoshino Nanjo and Pile address and refer to Tokui Sora by her given name directly without any honorifics or suffixes, showing their familiarity.
 * She referred to Suzuko Mimori as her "best friend" one time in a live broadcast after drinking for a few hours.
 * During the 2015 New Year broadcast, most of the other voice actresses voted her to be the one with the biggest gap between their first impression of her, and her real personality. Despite exuding a cool and confident aura, she is described to be a person who moves at her own pace.
 * She mentioned that out of all the Philippine local delicacies she's tasted, she liked and  the most. She also stated that she would like to try Jollibee's Chicken Joy since it was popular in the Philippines.
 * She likes to go to karaoke and sing anime songs, J-POP songs, and Love Live! songs.
 * In the KotoHonoUmiMaki one night revive broadcast special, she won the title of "Art representative" for the show.
 * She dedicated a song to Maki, titled "P.S. Arigatou" (P.S. ありがとう).
 * Maki's catchphrase is often used by her in real life, for example in one of μ's interviews.

Gallery

 * Please refer to this voice actress' Image Gallery.