Rica Matsumoto is a Japanese actress, voice actor, and singer born on November 30, 1968, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. She was born into a family of stage actors, with her father serving as the director of the Shinseiza theater troupe. Originally aspiring to follow in her family's footsteps as a stage actress, she shifted her focus to voice acting on the advice of a senior colleague, finding a new avenue for performance using only her voice.

Matsumoto began her voice acting career in the late 1980s, with one of her earliest roles being Choromatsu Matsuno in the 1988 anime adaptation of Osomatsu-kun. Throughout the 1990s, she established herself as a versatile performer, taking on a wide array of characters. She secured her first leading role as Jin Hyuuga in Matchless Raijin-Oh in 1991. Other notable roles from this period include Seiji Takasugi in The Brave Fighter of Legend Da-Garn, Aoi Futaba in You're Under Arrest, Fūsuke in Ninku, Midori Kodama in Azuki-chan, and Bernardo in Kaiketsu Zorro. Her filmography also includes voices in series such as Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Yu Yu Hakusho, and in the OVA series like Shamanic Princess and Fake. In 1998, she voiced the protagonist Gon Freecss in the first animated adaptation of Hunter × Hunter.

In 1997, Matsumoto was cast as Satoshi, known in English as Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the long-running Pokémon anime series. This role would become her most iconic and enduring performance, which she played continuously for over two decades across all main series, including Pocket Monsters, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl, Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!, Pocket Monsters: XY, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon, and Pocket Monsters: Journeys. She also voiced Satoshi in numerous theatrical films related to the franchise, such as Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, and many others. Her association with Pokémon extended beyond voice acting, as she also performed several of the anime's opening theme songs. Her first opening theme, Mezase Pokémon Master, sold over 1.85 million copies in Japan alone.

Beyond Pokémon, Matsumoto's voice can be heard in a diverse range of other anime. She played roles like Jabe in Seven Knights Revolution: Hero Successor, Oyakan-sama in Poccolies, Sandi Fishburne in the Lupin III TV special Missed by a Dollar, Feslida and Matsurida in Waccha PriMagi!, and Zuruko in the Stitch! franchise. She also voiced characters in productions like Wasimo, Kibun wa Uaa Jitsuzai OL Kōza, Nyūin Bokki Monogatari Odaiji ni!, and Ikenai Boy. Her filmography includes the role of Tomomi in the adult anime Kibun wa Uaa Jitsuzai OL Kōza, and she has performed in dubbing roles for foreign productions.

In 2000, Matsumoto became a founding member of the anison band JAM Project, alongside notable singers like Ichirou Mizuki and Hironobu Kageyama. She was the first female member of the group, known for performing theme songs for anime and tokusatsu series. While she announced a temporary departure from the group's activities in 2008 to focus on solo work, her involvement with JAM Project highlighted her powerful singing voice and her contributions to anime music. Her musical work includes theme songs for tokusatsu productions like Kamen Rider Ryuki and, more recently, the ending theme for the 2024 Super Sentai series Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger.

In 2016, Matsumoto became a freelance voice actor after leaving her agency and founded her own talent management company, Matsurica Inc., in 2018. She has also served as a special lecturer at the Nippon Engineering College. Her work in the 2020s includes voice roles in video games and continued acting, including a role in the stage adaptation of Les Misérables and appearing in the Super Sentai series Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, where she also performs the ending theme song.