Actress Yu Aoi was born on August 17, 1985, in Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1999, she was selected to play Polly in the musical "Annie." In 2001, she made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in director Shunji Iwai's "All About Lily Chou-Chou." She has also teamed up with Iwai on other films, including "Hana and Alice" and "Letters from Nirai Karai." She also played a Tokiwa miner learning hula dancing in director Lee Sang-il's "Hula Girls" (2006), for which she won the Japan Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress. Upcoming appearances include "Carrying Spring on My Back" and the "Rurouni Kenshin" series in 2014, and "Captain Harlock," directed by Shinji Aramaki, in which she participated as a voice actress, due for release in September of this year.

She has been active as a model since her debut, and has often appeared on the cover of the magazine "Soen." She has also often been featured as a symbol of fashion such as "Mori Girl," but her favorite casual clothes are "COMME des GARÇONS," which she often wears in her own photo books.