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Erika Ikuta (生田絵梨花) is a Japanese idol singer, actress and a former member of the Japanese idol girl group Nogizaka46. She is currently a soloist affiliated with Ohta Pro, and active as duo "Hamaiku" with Ryuichi Hamaie. She played Cosette in the Japanese 30th Anniversary Tour and concert of the musical Les Misérables in 2017 and in 2019. She also played Éponine in Les Misérables in 2021 and Fantine in Les Misérables in 2024 till 2025. She is also very well known for the voice of Asha for Disney’s Japanese versions of Wish and Once Upon a Studio.

Erika Ikuta was born on 22nd January 1997 in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and grew up in Tokyo, Japan. Her father's cousin, Masahide Sakuma, is a music producer known for producing many J-pop music.

Career[]

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Erika Ikuta as a Nogizaka46 member

In 2011, she auditioned for Nogizaka46 and was selected as one of the 36 first generation members. Her audition song was Aiko's Star. She was chosen as one of the select members for their debut song Guruguru Curtain released on February 22, 2012. In September 2012, she was selected for the leading role Alice in Nogizaka46's musical stage Sixteen Principal. She also dubbed Rue in The Hunger Games.

On April 20, 2014, she announced that she would suspend her activities of Nogizaka46 to prepare for further schooling. On August 3, 2014, in their variety show Nogizakatte, Doko?, it was revealed that she took the center position in Nogizaka46 for their 10th single Nandome no Aozora ka?, and she would resume her activities.

On January 14, 2015, a family drama Zannen na Otto started airing on Fuji TV, and she regularly appeared as a high school girl who had dreams of becoming a pianist. She released her first solo photo book Tenchō on January 21, 2016. It has sold 38,355 copies in a week, and ranked 1st on the Oricon weekly photo book sales chart. It also ranked 1st on the Oricon book ranking photobook category in the first half of the year 2016.

In July 2016, It was also announced that Erika Ikuta has been announced as the new Cosette in the 30th anniversary staging of Les Misérables in Japan, She starred as Cosette in Les Misérables in 2017 and she also reprised the role in 2019. Erika Ikuta then starred as Éponine in Les Misérables in 2021. Erika Ikuta then returned to play Fantine in Les Misérables from late 2024 till mid 2025. She is also the second actress in Japan to play both Cosette, Éponine and Fantine in Les Misérables, the first actress to do so was Rina Chinen.

In the episode of Nogizaka46's variety show "Nogizaka Under Construction" aired last July 3, 2017, she was the winner of Takayama Kazumi's T-1, a competition amongst the members for the best omelet roll. It was considered a significant improvement on her cooking skills as she previously had zero knowledge in cooking as shown in the group's former variety show "Nogizakatte, Doko?" aired last 2011. On July 9, 2017, Erika Ikuta got her first solo song after beating Mai Shiraishi during Nogibingo TV show NOGIKOI Tournament. In December 2018, she was the 5th Nogizaka46 member to release second photobook.

On October 25, 2021, Erika Ikuta announced she would graduate from Nogizaka46 on December 31, 2021 on her official blog. Her graduation concert took place at the Yokohama Arena on December 14 and 15.

On January 5, 2022, five days after her graduation from Nogizaka46, Ikuta announced her return to her talent agency during her days as a child actress, Ohta Production. On January 8, her official Twitter account was opened. On February 1, her official website was opened (with a fan event on 19 to commemorate the occasion), while her Nogizaka46 blog posts were deleted.

Ikuta's first post-Nogizaka46 acting role was as Mio Mukai in the Fuji TV series Gossip: #Kanojo ga Shiritai Honto no 〇〇.

Her second fan event, "Erika Ikuta 2022 summer fun", was held on August 3, 2022 at Zepp DiverCity and August 6 at Zepp Namba.

On November 1, 2022, her first calendar was released. It was available to the members of her official website until December 31.

Her third fan event, "Erika Ikuta 2022 winter fun", was held on December 3, 2022 at Zepp Osaka Bayside and on December 11 at KT Zepp Yokohama.

Her first solo tour, "Erika Ikuta Autumn Live Tour 2023", ran from September 10 to 17, 2023, spanning Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka and Aichi. A final leg of the tour will be on October 5 at the Tokyo International Forum.

On October 13, It was announced that Erika Ikuta would be doing the Japanese voice of Asha in the Japanese dubbing of the Disney film Wish.

On January 22, 2024, the day of her 27th birthday, Erika Ikuta announced that she would be making her solo singer debut under Sony Music Japan with the release of her first extended play, "capriccioso", on April 10. She also opened her official YouTube channel that day.

On May 15, it was announced that Erika Ikuta would star in her first lead role in a public TV drama, Subarashiki Kana, Sensei!.

Voice Roles[]

Dubbings[]

  • The Hunger Games (2012) - Rue
  • Once Upon a Studio (2023) - Asha
  • Wish (2023) - Asha

Theatre Roles[]

  • Coco Smile: Asu e no Rock 'n' Roll (August 2007), Coco
  • Heidi (2009), Clara
  • Rainbow Prelude (Tennōzu Ginga Theater, 2 October 2014 - 5 October 2015), Louise
  • Princess Knight (Akasaka ACT Theater, 12 November 2015 - 17 November 2015), Princess Sapphire
  • Roméo et Juliette (Akasaka ACT Theater, 2017 - 2019), Juliette
  • Les Misérables (Imperial Theatre), Cosette (2017-2019), Éponine (2021), Fantine (2024-Present)
  • Mozart (Imperial Theatre, 2018), Constanze
  • Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (January 2019), Natasha Rostova
  • Beautiful Woman -A Woman Who Has Met With God- (2019-2020), Kegare
  • Whistle Down the Wind (March 2020), Swallow
  • Your Lie in April (2020-2022), Kaori Miyazono
  • Mean Girls (2023), Cady Heron
  • Gypsy (2023), Louise

Trivia[]

  • Her Nogizaka46 lightstick color was Yellow.
  • She also shares name and surname similarities with 9th Generation Morning Musume member Erina Ikuta, as well as the kanji for "ri" (梨) in their given names. They took a two-shot photo together when Morning Musume '15 and Nogizaka46 participated in the 2015 FNS Kayousai THE LIVE, and both girls commented that it must have been fate that with their similar names, they both became idols.
  • In April 2019, she was one of the recipients of the 44th Kazuo Kikuta Theatre Awards and won an award for her roles as Constanze in Mozart! and Natasha in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.
  • She is also one of the very few actresses worldwide to play both Cosette, Éponine and Fantine in a production of Les Misérables.
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