Table of Biography
Mana Ashida is an actress, singer, and television personality from Japan. Moreover, Mana Ashida is famous for her roles in the films Usagi Drop and Confessions. Ashida portrays a young Mako Mori in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim.
Early Life
Mana Ashida was born on the 23rd of June 2004, in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. She is 19 years old and holds Japanese nationality. Moreover, she has a zodiac sign of Cancer and belongs to the Asian ethnicity.
However, this girl has not shared anything regarding her parents, and siblings’ names and her childhood days.
Caption: Ashida Mana with a cute smile (Source: Instagram)
Regarding her academic qualification, Ashida attends Keio Chutobu Junior High School in Minato City.
Professional Career
Early Years
In 2009, Mana Ashida made her debut in Asahi Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC Short Movie 2. Bokenmama.In 2010, she starred in the live-action film adaptation of the manga Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora.
That same year, she played Manami Moriguchi in the film Confessions. She also appears in Ghost: In Your Arms Again, a Japanese remake of Ghost, which was released in 1990. In addition to acting, she provided voice-overs for foreign films that were distributed in Japan.
She played Agnes in the Japanese version of Despicable Me, and she played a young Fang Deng in the Japanese version of Aftershock.
Rise of Fame
Mana Ashida got to notoriety after starring as Reina Michiki, a young child abused by her mother, in the award-winning television drama, Mother. In 2011, Ashida became the youngest starring actress in a Japanese television drama at the age of six, in the special television drama movie Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien.
When she starred in the television drama, Marumo no Okite during the spring drama season, she became the youngest actress in a drama series. She co-starred in this series alongside Fuku Suzuki, who was 6 years old at the time.
As a singer and variety host debut
Besides acting, she is also a well-known singer and Suzuki was her first song. This song, released as a single by Universal Music on May 25, 2011, debuted third on the Oricon charts making the duo the youngest group in history to gain a top-10 place on the Oricon charts.
On August 14, 2011, Ashida performed on NHK’s Music Japan with Suzuki, actress Nozomi Ohashi, and actor Seishiro Kato. It was the first time all three appeared together on the same show, in a section called “MJ Summer Holidays: Children’s Special.”
She appeared in many Japanese films in early 2011, including Inu to Anata no Monogatari, and Hanky Densha. In the manga adaption Usagi Drop, she co-starred with actor Kenichi Matsuyama. She was critically appreciated for her acting as the primary character Rin.
Ashida joined the NTV variety and talk show Meringue no Kimochi’s long-running hosts Masami Hisamoto and Asako Ito in October 2011. She was the youngest regular host of a talk or variety show at the time.
Her solo music debut with Universal Music was announced on September 15, 2011. In October 2011, she released her first song with them, followed by her debut album in late 2011. Her debut album, Happy Smile!, was released in Japan on November 23, 2011.
It debuted in the eighth position on the Oricon weekly charts, making Mana Ashida the youngest artist in the top ten at the age of 7 years and 5 months. By competing in the 62nd edition of the annual Khaku Uta Gassen singing competition, Ashida and Suzuki became the competition’s youngest participants.
2012–present
In a 2012 film, Ashida voiced Annie, the female lead character in the Japanese anime film adaption of the Magic Tree House series. She sang the theme song from the anime series Jewelpet KiraDeco! “Zutto Zutto Tomodachi” also featured in the 2012 anime film Jewelpet the Movie: Sweets Dance Princess.
She also starred as Princess Mana in the film. On May 16, 2012, the song was released as a single and peaked at number 17 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Charts. In Fuji Television’s summer drama series Beautiful Rain, she played Miu Kinoshita, the daughter of a single father who suffered from juvenile Alzheimer’s disease.
Caption: Ashida Mana to make her Hollywood debut in ‘Pacific Rim’ (Source: tokyohive)
She also performed the theme song, “Ame ni Negai o.” On December 27, 2012, she performed her debut solo concert at Tokyo’s Curian Shinagawa General Citizen Hall. In the 2013 film Pacific Rim, she makes her Hollywood debut as a teenage Mako Mori. She auditioned for the role in October 2011 and impressed the judges with her rich expressiveness.
On January 2, 2013, she starred in a Celebrity Kids Edition of the Japanese version of the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. She earned the top prize of one million dollars, making her the youngest top prize winner in the Millionaire franchise. Ashida appeared as Post, a child abandoned at birth, in the television series Ashita, Mama ga Inai in 2014.
Her performance in this television series was well-received, with 50.8% of viewers expressing high satisfaction with her performance in an Oricon poll. In 2015, she played a 10-year-old corporate CEO in Rugged!, her first starring role in an NHK television drama.
Awards
In 2010, she earned the 34th Japan Academy Awards: Rookie Of The Year for Ghost: In Your Arms Again, the 4th Tokyo Drama Awards: Special Award for Mother, 65th The Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Newcomer for Mother, and the 14th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix: Best Supporting Actress for Mother.
Likewise, in 2011, she earned the Tokyo Drama Awards: Best Performance by an Actress for Marumo no Okite and Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien, 53rd Japan Record Award: Special Award for Maru Maru Mori Mori! and 54th Blue Ribbon Awards: Best Newcomer for Hankyū Densha and Usagi Drop.
Ashida Mana – Net Worth 2024
Being an actor, singer, and voice-over artist, she has collected a decent sum of money in her career. Moreover, her net worth is estimated at more than $1 million.
Relationship Status
Talking about her personal life, Mana Ashida is single and unmarried. Moreover, she is too private when it comes to her personal life and has not dated anyone at the moment.
It seems, she is focused on her profession and is not a part of any kind of controversy or rumors.
Body Measurements
Mana Ashida is 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighs around 38 kg. Moreover, she has both black hair and eye color and has a slim body type.
Caption: Ashida Mana posing for a photo wearing a traditional Japanese dress (Source: Instagram)
Ashida Mana – Social Media
On her Instagram page, there are more than 19.1k followers. Likewise, 208 friends on Facebook are not active on Twitter.