Tanie Kitabayashi was a highly respected Japanese actress and voice actress, born on May 21, 1911, in Tokyo as Reiko Ando. She began her career on the stage and was a founding member of the influential Mingei Theatre Company in 1950. Known early on for her portrayals of elderly women, she built a substantial career in film before becoming recognizable to anime audiences.

Her most prominent voice role in anime was as Granny, the kind elderly neighbor of the Kusakabe family, in the 1988 Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbor Totoro. This remains her most famous voice performance. Her voice acting work also extended to dubbing, as she provided the Japanese voice for the Evil Queen in the 1958 dub of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Kitabayashi's career was defined by her live-action film work rather than frequent anime roles or recurring collaborations with specific anime directors or studios. While she worked with acclaimed directors like Akira Kurosawa in his 1950 film Scandal, which marked her film debut, and appeared in multiple films by directors like Kon Ichikawa and Shōhei Imamura, she did not have a notable pattern of repeat collaborations within the anime industry.

Throughout her extensive career, Kitabayashi received numerous accolades for her acting, though these were primarily for her live-action performances. She won the Blue Ribbon Award and Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress in 1960 for the film Kiku to Isamu. Later in her career, she received the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actress for her role in the 1991 film Rainbow Kids, as well as the Best Supporting Actress award in 2003 for阿弥陀堂讯息 (Amidado Hall). Her final film role was in the 2002 movie Yomigaeri. Tanie Kitabayashi passed away on April 27, 2010, at the age of 98.