飯島真理 is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, and voice actress, born on May 18, 1963, in茨城县土浦市. Her career is uniquely defined by a single, iconic role that she originated and has revisited across multiple decades, firmly linking her professional identity with the character she first portrayed.

飯島真理's entry into voice acting was serendipitous. Classically trained on piano from the age of three and a composer since elementary school, she was studying at the国立音楽大学 when she was signed by the record label JVC Victor in 1982 as a singer-songwriter. It was through the label that she was encouraged to audition for a role in a new science fiction anime, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Despite having no prior voice acting experience and little familiarity with animation, she was cast as the character Lynn Minmay. Her natural performance and musical ability, including the fact that she was a songwriter, were key factors in her selection.

飯島真理's role as Lynn Minmay in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross was unprecedented. She not only provided the character's speaking voice but also performed all of Minmay's singing vocals within the story, making her the first "real idol to be born from a fictional character". This integration of voice acting and performance was foundational to the series' narrative, where Minmay's songs play a crucial role. She continued in this multifaceted role for the 1984 feature film adaptation, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?. For the film, she performed the iconic title track, "Do You Remember Love?," which became her most commercially successful single, reaching the top ten on the Oricon charts. She also wrote and composed the film's ending song, "Tenshi no Enogu" (Angel's Paint), a piece that was later featured in the music video collection The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Flash Back 2012. A song she had written prior to her involvement with Macross, "Cinderella," was also used as Minmay's first in-show performance, further blending her personal artistry with the fictional character.

While her voice acting work is almost exclusively defined by Lynn Minmay, her primary career has been as a recording artist. Her debut album, Rosé, was produced by the renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and released in 1983. She has since released over twenty studio albums, evolving her musical style and songwriting. After moving to Los Angeles in 1989, she continued to create music, both in Japanese and English.

In a notable achievement that underscores her connection to the role, 飯島真理 reprised her voice for Lynn Minmay in ADV Films' 2006 English-language DVD release of the original Macross series. This made her one of the first Japanese voice actors to reprise a major anime role for an English dub. Her continued involvement with the character has been recognized with awards for her music; her song "Unspoken Love" from the 2004 album Wonderful People won the Just Plain Folks Music Awards for Best Asian Song in 2006, and her 2006 album Uncompromising Innocence received a nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.