Maia Baran is a Belgian actress born in Brussels on February 28, 1977, who has built a prolific career primarily as a voice artist in animation since the late 1990s. She was trained at the Institut des arts de diffusion (IAD) in Louvain-la-Neuve. Her voice is well-known to French-speaking audiences for her longstanding roles in several major anime and animated franchises.

Baran is perhaps best recognized for providing the French voice of Sakura Haruno, a central character in the long-running Naruto series. She has voiced Sakura across numerous productions, including the original Naruto anime, Naruto Shippūden, and multiple films such as Naruto the Last: The Movie and Boruto: Naruto the Movie. In the Pokémon universe, she is a recurrent voice, known for roles including Flora, the Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, and Max in the main animated series. Her work on Doraemon includes voicing Shizuka Minamoto in the Belgian French dub of the 2005 series and its related films, including Stand By Me Doraemon and Stand By Me Doraemon 2.

Beyond these signature roles, her extensive filmography in animation demonstrates significant range. She has voiced characters such as Pandore in Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Sanctuary, Karai in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and the TMNT film, Mirta in Winx Club, and the mother of Momo in the film A Letter to Momo. She has also contributed to the French dubs of Western animation, including Princess Cadance in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: The Movie, Marcy Wu in Amphibia, and Muffy Crosswire in Arthur. Her voice work extends to video games as well, such as her role as Noire in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series.

In addition to her animation work, Baran is active in the dubbing of live-action films and television series. She is the regular French voice for actresses such as Michelle Williams, Amanda Peet, Winona Ryder, and Marta Etura. She has also lent her voice to the French-language audiobook narrations of major literary works, including the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Her career also has roots in theatre, with stage acting and assistant directing credits dating back to the 1990s.