Actress Ryoko Hirosue was born on July 18, 1980, in Kochi Prefecture.
In 1994, she won the grand prize in a commercial contest sponsored by Clearasil and made her debut the following year. In 1995, she made her TV drama debut with "S in the Heart." In April 1997, she made her singing debut, produced by Mariya Takeuchi, with her single "Maji de Koi suru 5-byou Mae" (5 Seconds Before Falling in Love), a huge hit that sold over 600,000 copies. Her second single, "Dai Suki!" (Love You!), produced by Mayo Okamoto, also reached number one on the Oricon charts, and she appeared on the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen that same year.
In 1997, she made her film debut in "20th Century Nostalgia," for which she won various Newcomer Awards. Since then, she has continued to work as an actress in dramas and films, as well as a singer. She attended Waseda University.
Since 2002, she has focused on acting. In 2008, her film "Departures" won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards. The film won the Grand Prix at the Montreal World Film Festival and 10 awards at the Japan Academy Prize, including Best Picture.

In her personal life, she married model and fashion brand CYCLE designer Okazawa Takahiro in 2003, and gave birth to her first child the following April, but divorced in 2008. In 2010, she remarried candle artist Candle Jun, and gave birth to her second child the following March.

The drama "Starman: Love on This Planet," which started this month, is her first starring role in a TV series in 17 years.