Masayo Kurata is a Japanese voice actress born on May 21, 1969, in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture. She is also credited under the name Kaho Takayanagi for some of her work. Kurata is a graduate of the 10th class of the Katsuta Voice Actor Academy, where her classmates included voice actors Koichi Tochika and Takako Honda. She began her career in the mid-1990s, with one of her earliest anime roles being in the 1995 series Bit the Cupid. Over her decades-long career, she has been affiliated with several talent agencies, including Arts Vision, and as of June 2016, she is represented by 81 Produce.

Kurata has built an extensive portfolio of roles across anime, video games, and OVAs. In anime television series, she is widely recognized for her portrayal of the shy and gentle Shinobu Maehara in the popular series Love Hina and its related specials. Another significant and long-running role is that of the scientist Rakshata Chawla in the Code Geass franchise. Other notable anime roles include Koyomi Hare Nanaka in Girls Bravo, Karinka in Steel Angel Kurumi, Tomoe Kashiwaba in Rozen Maiden, and Subaru Mikage in Comic Party. Her film work includes roles in the Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, and Case Closed (Detective Conan) movie series.

In addition to her television and film work, Kurata has voiced characters in original video animations (OVAs) and video games, which directly correspond to many of the roles the user inquired about. She played the role of Emilia in the OVA for the role-playing game Generation of Chaos. She is credited as the voice of Tomoko Kitazawa in the adult OVA series Immoral Sisters. Kurata voiced Chizuru Sakaki in the OVA Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~Next Season~, a sequel to the Rumbling Hearts franchise. She also provided the voice for the cat character Charlotte in the magical girl anime Magical Meow Meow Taruto. In the video game and OVA Natsuiro no Sunadokei (Hourglass of Summer), she voiced the character Ai Senou.

Throughout her career, Kurata has demonstrated recurring collaborations with specific directors. Notably, she has worked with director Goro Taniguchi on numerous projects, appearing in his works, including Code Geass and s-CRY-ed, at least 13 times. Her work is not limited to a single genre, spanning mainstream television, film, and video games. In 2021, she announced her marriage to fellow voice actor Takeharu Onishi. Kurata remains active in the industry, with credits as recent as 2024.