Saori Hayashi was a Japanese voice actress and former stage actress active in the early 2010s. She was born on November 10, 1985, in Kanagawa Prefecture. Before entering the entertainment industry, she earned a practical nurse qualification in high school and later studied clinical psychology at university. Her path to voice acting began at the Atomic Monkey Voice Actor and Drama Research Institute, where she was a third-term student. She made her professional debut around 2010 and was initially affiliated with the agency Atomic Monkey before transferring to Axl-One in April 2014.

Hayashi's career included a range of supporting roles in anime television series and video games. One of her notable roles was as Kumacaron, a bear-macaron hybrid, in the 2013 original net animation Donyatsu. She also voiced Kumi Mashiba in the third season of Hajime no Ippo: Rising, a role she took over from a previous actress. Her other anime credits included Mogi in Sankarea: Undying Love, Aki in From the New World, minor roles in Sacred Seven where she played characters named Risa and Saori, and Millefeui in Pokémon XY. In addition to anime, she contributed voices to video games such as Sword and Bride and Demon Tribe.

Throughout her brief career, Hayashi was known in radio circles for her gentle, soothing voice, which led to her being affectionately nicknamed Unpi by fellow voice actor Tomokazu Seki. However, her career was cut short in June 2014 when she posted a concerning message on her blog, leading to confirmation of a suicide attempt. Shortly after, she announced her retirement from voice acting, citing health reasons including depression and resulting facial nerve damage, and clarified that previous statements made about her former agency were made while unwell. Her roles were subsequently recast or reassigned to other actresses.