Ayaka Miyoshi was born on June 18, 1996, in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Her entertainment career began years before Sakura Gakuin. She started appearing as a reader model while still in elementary school and was scouted in Harajuku when she was in the third grade. She subsequently became affiliated with Amuse, beginning a professional relationship with the agency that has continued throughout her adult career.
Ayaka moved into children's fashion modeling at an early age. In 2008, she appeared in Nico☆Petit and became one of the magazine's models. Her time in the publication placed her within the Japanese junior-fashion world before she became known nationally through Seventeen.
Her acting career also began while she was still a child. In 2007, she appeared in the television drama Otoko no Kosodate. Additional early television work included Yume no Mitsukekata Oshietaru! in 2008 and WOWOW's Yūkai KIDNAPPING in 2009. She also appeared in films during this period, including Uta Tamashii, Shinizokonai no Ao, Solo Contest and Onnanoko Monogatari.
In 2010, Ayaka appeared in Tetsuya Nakashima's film Confessions. The same year became one of the most important transition points in her early career because three different parts of her professional identity began developing simultaneously: acting, fashion modeling and Sakura Gakuin.
In April 2010, Ayaka became one of the eight founding members of Sakura Gakuin, Amuse's school-themed "limited to the growing period" group. The project was built around the idea that members would participate only during their school-age years and would graduate after completing junior high school. As one of the oldest original members, Ayaka helped establish the group's earliest traditions, live performances and club-unit system.
Sakura Gakuin made its public stage debut at TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL in August 2010. Within the group's extracurricular-unit system, Ayaka joined the Newspaper Club SCOOPERS with Airi Matsui. The two performed "Brand New Day" and appeared together in the unit's reporter-themed activities. Although SCOOPERS had a small discography, it became one of the distinctive club units from Sakura Gakuin's earliest period.
At almost the same time, Ayaka achieved a major breakthrough in modeling. She was selected as one of the winners of Miss Seventeen 2010 and became an exclusive model for Seventeen magazine. This began a relationship with the publication that would last more than seven years and eventually make her one of its most recognizable models.
Throughout 2010 and 2011, Ayaka balanced Sakura Gakuin, Seventeen and acting. She appeared in television dramas including Atami no Sōsakan, Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta and Kōkōsei Restaurant while continuing Sakura Gakuin's concerts, releases and school-year activities.
During Sakura Gakuin's 2011 school year, Ayaka, Ayami Muto and Airi Matsui became the first members to approach the group's mandatory graduation point. The three recorded "3.a.m," which appeared on Sakura Gakuin 2011 Nendo ~FRIENDS~ and became associated with the group's first graduating class.
On March 25, 2012, Ayaka graduated from Sakura Gakuin alongside Ayami Muto and Airi Matsui at Sakura Gakuin 2011 Nendo ~Graduation~ at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall. The three became Sakura Gakuin's first graduates, establishing the annual graduation tradition that would continue until the group ended in 2021.
Ayaka's post-Sakura career quickly moved toward acting and modeling rather than music. In December 2012 she appeared in Good Morning Everyone! (G'mor Evian!), playing Hatsuki, the teenage daughter of a former punk musician played by Kumiko Asō. Her performance was recognized with the Sponichi Grand Prix Newcomer Award at the 67th Mainichi Film Awards.
Her film career advanced further in 2013 with Tabidachi no Shima Uta ~Jūgo no Haru~, in which she played her first major leading film role. The story followed a fifteen-year-old girl living on Minami-Daitō Island who must leave her home to continue high school in Okinawa. Her performances in Tabidachi no Shima Uta and G'mor Evian! earned her the Best Newcomer Award at the 35th Yokohama Film Festival.
The awards established Ayaka as more than a fashion model who occasionally acted. While still a teenager, she was already being recognized by major Japanese film awards for dramatic performances.
Her Seventeen career continued to grow in parallel. Between 2010 and 2017 she spent seven years and two months as an exclusive model. According to Seventeen's own retrospective, Ayaka appeared on the magazine's cover fifteen times, including eight solo covers, and modeled nearly two thousand outfits during her years with the publication. She gradually became one of Seventeen's leading models rather than simply one of its younger newcomers.
Acting remained increasingly important. In 2014 she appeared in the television dramas Lost Days and GTO. The following year she received one of her most prominent television roles to that point when she was cast as Xiang-Ying in Nippon TV's live-action adaptation of Angel Heart, based on Tsukasa Hojo's manga. As the series' central heroine opposite Takaya Kamikawa's Ryo Saeba, Ayaka played a former assassin who receives the transplanted heart of Kaori Makimura and begins developing a new emotional life.
By her late teens and early twenties, Ayaka had therefore established three overlapping identities: former Sakura Gakuin member, major fashion model and actress. Unlike some idol graduates who moved entirely away from modeling, she continued to treat fashion as a central professional field even as her screen career became more substantial.
In 2017, Ayaka graduated from Seventeen. The November 2017 issue marked the conclusion of seven years and two months as an exclusive model. Seventeen's retrospective emphasized both the length of her tenure and her position as one of the magazine's top models, including her fifteen cover appearances.
Her fashion career continued beyond Seventeen. From 2018 through 2021 she served as a cover girl for 25ans Wedding, transitioning from teenage fashion into high-fashion and bridal editorial work. She later appeared in international luxury-fashion projects including Giorgio Armani's CROSSROADS project and runway work for the Marni Fall/Winter 2023–24 collection in Tokyo.
Ayaka's acting career reached another level in 2019 when she starred as Shizuka Suzuki in Shinobu Yaguchi's musical comedy Dance with Me. The film required her to carry a production built around acting, comedy, singing and extensive dance. The story follows an office worker who is hypnotized into singing and dancing whenever she hears music, turning the conventions of a musical into the central joke of the film. Dance with Me was screened internationally and became one of Ayaka's signature leading roles.
The following year demonstrated her range across very different genres. In February 2020 she starred as clinical psychologist Kanade Morita in Takashi Shimizu's horror film Howling Village (Inunaki Mura), confronting the legend surrounding the supposedly cursed Inunaki Tunnel and village.
In September 2020, Ayaka co-starred with Junko Abe in Daughters. She played Koharu Tsutsumi, a woman whose relationship with her closest friend changes when the friend decides to become a single mother. The film's quieter, character-focused drama contrasted sharply with both Dance with Me and Howling Village and showed the increasing diversity of her leading roles.
Her international recognition expanded dramatically in December 2020 with the release of Netflix's Alice in Borderland. Ayaka played forensic scientist Rizuna Ann, one of the residents associated with the Beach and one of the series' most recognizable supporting characters. The production became a major international streaming success, exposing Ayaka to an audience far beyond Japan.
Ayaka returned as Ann in Alice in Borderland Season 2 in December 2022 and later again in Season 3 in 2025. The character's continued presence across all three seasons made Alice in Borderland one of the longest-running and most internationally visible acting projects of her career.
In 2021, Ayaka expanded beyond acting and modeling into filmmaking. As part of the MIRRORLIAR FILMS short-film project, she made her directing debut with inside you. The film stars Mayu Yamaguchi and ballerina Nozomi Iijima and follows a woman questioning what she truly wants from her life after seeing a ballet dancer from a bus window. Ayaka explained that the opportunity developed after conversations during the production of Daughters about wanting to explore methods of expression beyond acting.
The directing experience was significant because it demonstrated a growing interest in the creative process behind the camera rather than only performance in front of it. Amuse now includes inside you as one of the major milestones in her professional biography.
In 2021 Ayaka also appeared in the TV Asahi horror drama Kotodamasō and its ABEMA companion production. At the same time, her fashion activities continued expanding internationally.
In 2022, Ayaka achieved a major fashion milestone when Tiffany & Co. named her its first-ever Japan brand ambassador. Tiffany described her as embodying the company's modern and energetic spirit and noted her expanding activities both in Japan and internationally. Her ambassador period continued from November 2022 through January 2025.
She also became a Koedo Kawagoe Ambassador in Saitama Prefecture in 2022, reflecting her longstanding connection to the region in which she grew up.
In 2023, Ayaka returned to action-oriented leading roles with the Amazon Original film Knuckle Girl. Based on a Korean webcomic and produced as a Japan–Korea collaboration, the film cast her as boxer Ran Tachibana, who fights a criminal organization while searching for her kidnapped sister. Amazon reported that Ayaka began intense physical training approximately six months before filming in order to transform herself for the role.
Knuckle Girl became another important international project because it combined a Japanese star and cast with Korean creative personnel and was distributed worldwide through Prime Video. It also reinforced the physical-performance skills Ayaka had previously demonstrated through dance and action-oriented roles.
Her international fashion presence continued in 2023, including a runway appearance at Marni's Fall/Winter 2023–24 Tokyo show.
The year 2024 became one of the strongest critical periods of Ayaka's acting career. She appeared in the television drama Chikyū no Arukikata (Globe-Trotter Travel Guidebook), an unusual production in which four celebrity "writers" travel through different countries while developing original guidebook features. Ayaka's segment took her through South Korea, from Seoul to Jeju Island, focusing on local food culture and the women behind it.
For her work in Chikyū no Arukikata, Ayaka received the Rising Star of the Year award at the 2024 Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards held in connection with the Busan International Film Festival. Amuse reported that she became the first Japanese recipient of the award.
Her 2024 film work included The Real You (Honshin), directed by Yuya Ishii and based on Keiichiro Hirano's novel. Ayaka played a woman named Miyoshi — written with different kanji but sharing the same pronunciation as her own surname — who becomes closely involved with the protagonist as he attempts to reconstruct his deceased mother through digital technology.
The role earned Ayaka the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 46th Yokohama Film Festival, presented in February 2025. More than a decade after winning the festival's Best Newcomer award, she had returned to the same awards organization as an established adult actress.
Also in 2024, Ayaka appeared as Minako Fuchino in the film adaptation of Akane Torikai's Teacher's White Lie, starring Nao. The film dealt with gender inequality, sexuality, violence and distorted personal relationships, adding another serious dramatic role to her increasingly adult filmography.
Her interest in filmmaking and emerging visual formats also continued. In June 2024 she was appointed official ambassador and judge for TikTok TOHO Film Festival 2024. The festival focused on short vertical films and emerging creators. Ayaka participated in judging approximately 400 submitted works and spoke publicly about the future potential of vertical-format filmmaking.
In September 2025, Ayaka returned as Rizuna Ann in Netflix's Alice in Borderland Season 3. Netflix explicitly listed her among the returning cast, marking five years since she first appeared in the series in 2020. The season again received a simultaneous worldwide release, reinforcing her position as one of the Sakura Gakuin graduates with the strongest international screen visibility.
Her career expanded again in 2026. In May she joined Korean singer and food personality Sung Si-kyung for Season 6 of Netflix Korea's food-and-travel reality series Foodie in Another Country (Tonari no Kuni no Gourmet / 隣の国のグルメイト). Netflix lists Ayaka among the featured cast alongside Sung Si-kyung and later participants such as Yutaka Matsushige, continuing her increasing activity in Korean and broader Asian entertainment.
In July 2026, Ayaka entered one of the largest Japanese film franchises of her career with Kingdom: Tamashii no Kessen, the fifth live-action Kingdom film. She plays Karin, the formidable strategist and general associated with the state of Chu and the coalition army. The film opened nationwide in Japan on July 17, 2026. Ayaka appeared alongside an extensive cast including Kento Yamazaki, Ryo Yoshizawa, Kanna Hashimoto, Shun Oguri, Takumi Saitoh and others.
The Karin role is notable because it combines her physical presence and action-film experience with one of Kingdom's major military antagonists. It also reunited her with director Shinsuke Sato, who directed Alice in Borderland.
In July 2026, Ayaka also launched a contact-lens brand that she produced herself, "मैं (main)," reflecting a further move into personal product development alongside acting and fashion work.
Her modeling and visual-art career also entered a new stage in 2026. On her thirtieth birthday, June 18, Gentosha announced the production of an art book titled Selēnē, photographed by South Korean photographer Cho Gi-Seok. The project was scheduled for release in autumn 2026 and was presented as an attempt to reveal sides of Ayaka that had not previously been seen publicly.
As of August 2026, Ayaka remains signed to Amuse and is officially represented as an actress, talent and model. Her work now extends across Japanese film and television, international streaming productions, luxury fashion, Korean entertainment, directing and personal creative projects.
Among Sakura Gakuin's 36 graduates, Ayaka has built one of the longest and most internationally visible mainstream entertainment careers. Her history also predates Sakura Gakuin by several years: she was already a professional child model and actress before becoming a founding member.
For that reason, Sakura Gakuin should be treated as an important formative chapter rather than the starting point or defining endpoint of her career. The broader trajectory is better understood as:
Child model / child actress → Nico☆Petit → Sakura Gakuin / SCOOPERS → Seventeen → film and television actress → international model → director / global streaming actress
Her Sakura Gakuin connection nevertheless remains historically significant. Alongside Ayami Muto and Airi Matsui, Ayaka belonged to the first graduating class, helping establish the graduation tradition that became central to Sakura Gakuin's identity. She also returned with the other first graduates as a surprise guest at Sakura Gakuin The Final in August 2021, connecting the group's first generation directly with its final generation.