Teruko Akiyama was the real name of Runa Akiyama, a Japanese voice actress born on April 17, 1954. She began her career in 1975 and her debut role was as Chiru Chiru in the anime series Wanpaku Omukashi Kumu Kumu. Over her nearly four-decade career, she became known for voicing a wide variety of characters, often playing petite roles.

Throughout her career, Akiyama was affiliated with several talent management agencies, including Production baobab, Aksent, and finally 81 Produce, where she was a member at the time of her death. She was active in the industry until 2014.

Akiyama's filmography includes numerous major and long-running anime series. Some of her most notable roles include Yumeko Kawai in Ninja Hattori-kun, Pench Eliza in Ginga Hyōryū Vifam and its sequel Vifam 13, and the first voice of the Milk Boy character in Soreike! Anpanman. She also voiced characters in other popular series such as Maya in The New Adventures of Honeybee Maya, Sunny in Attacker You!, and later provided voices for characters in Detective Conan. Beyond anime, her work extended to dubbing foreign productions and puppetry, including a long-running role as the original voice of the title character in the puppet drama Zawazawa Mori no Ganko-chan. A notable recurring collaboration in her later career was providing the voice of the grandmother in the Taiwanese-Chinese animated series A-gui and its related projects.

Runa Akiyama passed away on March 8, 2014, at the age of 59. Following her death, other voice actors took over some of her long-standing roles, such as the character Ganko-chan.