is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with VIMS and Starchild. She has been affectionately nicknamed by her Japanese fans. She debuted as a voice actress in 1997, releasing her debut single "My best friend" on . Since then, she has been involved in excess of 350 productions in addition to promotional material, concert performances, as well as charting several albums and singles. She won the award for Best Supporting Voice Actress in the 4th Seiyu Awards. She is one of a handful of Japanese idol voice actors that rose to prominence in the 2000s, whose popularity today has been attributed to their solid experience and long-term interaction with their fan base, as opposed to the contemporary norms of youth and beauty in the entertainment industry. As a result of her ongoing success, she has performed solo at large music venues, such as the Nippon Budokan in 2009 and the Yoyogi National Gymnasium's First Stadium in 2015, each with capacities of approximately 14,000 and 13,000, respectively. Her official fanclub is the "Black Cat Alliance". Some of her notable roles in anime include Naru Narusegawa in Love Hina, Izayoi Riko/Cure Magical's speaking voice in Witchy PreCure!, Multi in To Heart, Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket, Ai in Dōbutsu no Mori, Ayu Tsukimiya in Kanon, Yuki Cross in Vampire Knight, Hanyuu and Maria Ushiromiya in, respectively, Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry, Miss Monochrome in Miss Monochrome, Minori Kushieda in Toradora!, Tsubasa Hanekawa in Monogatari, Chie Satonaka in Persona 4, Kōko Kaga in Golden Time, Carla in Fairy Tail and Wiz in KonoSuba. Personal life Born in Tokyo, Horie spent much of her younger years as a latchkey kid. As an only child, (at that time) she would spend most of her time alone, playing outside of her residence after school until 7pm, when her parents would return from work. In junior high school, she joined the volleyball club but did not enjoy it much. Horie refers to her time at junior high and high school as her 'dark era'. Early childhood interests included watching the anime series Dirty Pair. She was fascinated by the main premise as a detective. She would act out scenes from memory with a school friend and also record herself with a cassette player. In 1995, during the first year of college, Horie auditioned at the Japan Voice Acting Institute for a scholarship,