Hikaru Akao (赤尾ひかる, Akao Hikaru, born June 16, 1995)^[1][2] is a Japanese voice actress from Saitama Prefecture who is currently affiliated with I'm Enterprise. Having aspired to become a voice actress since her early life, she entered a training school, and after graduating became affiliated with I'm Enterprise. She made her voice acting debut in 2016, and played her first lead role in 2018 as the character Kaoruko Moeta in the anime television series Comic Girls.

During her sixth grade of elementary school, Akao watched the anime series Naruto on television.^[3] Although she had been familiar with the occupation of voice acting during that time, she did not initially wish to pursue that career as she "hated her voice".^[3] She became interested in broadcasting during her elementary years, so upon entering junior high school, she joined her school's broadcasting club. During this time, she began speaking during club events, which made her more confident in her voice and realized that she had fun using it.^[3]

During her second year of high school, she came across a pamphlet for a voice acting training school that had been delivered to her club. Although she initially did not want to pursue voice acting, she decided to give it a try as she thought that many people were aiming for that career. As the schedule of that training school was in conflict with her club activities, she decided to go to another school.^[3] She later studied at the Japan Narration Actor Institute, graduating in 2015.^[1]

After finishing her studies, Akao became part of I'm Enterprise in 2015. She began her voice acting career playing minor roles in anime series such as Love Live! Sunshine!! and Jinsei.^[1] She also became a host of a weekly radio program with fellow voice actors Sayaka Senbongi and Misaki Watada.^[4] In 2017, she played the role of Lulune Louie in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Sword Oratoria as well as background roles in Alice & Zoroku and Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel.^[1] In 2018, she played her first lead role as Kaoruko Moeta in Comic Girls.^[5] She played the role of Chika Sugihara in Back Street Girls.^[6] In 2022, Akao was one of the winners of the Best New Actress Award at the 16th Seiyu Awards.^[7]