Pile

Hori Eriko was born on May 02, 1988 in Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Her blood type is O and her zodiac sign is Taurus. 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 Nanjou Yoshino and Kubo Yurika. She voices Nishikino Maki 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 between 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 Girl’s 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...".

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

In 2013, she formed a singing duo with Kusuda Aina under the name Please&Secret.

In August 2014, she formed a singing duo with Iida Riho 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 is planned for release under the Tower Records label. This will be her first album under a major record label.

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 is 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 the correct location of Big Sight. Her forgetfulness showed itself again during the 5th live's closing emcee, when 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 favourite colour is pink. She is happiest when she is not alone.

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 favourite salon at the moment appears to be RISEL Hair Salon Shibuya, often receiving styling and colour 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.

Trivia

 * She is close friends with Kusuda Aina and Nitta Emi.
 * She is a heavy fan of the NicoMaki pairing alongside Tokui Sora, though her relations with the other voice actress do not appear to be as close as to other members of the team.