Kaoru Shimamura was a Japanese voice actress born Hiroko Yonekura on April 15, 1969, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. She was affiliated with the talent agency 81 Produce. She passed away on February 26, 2013, at the age of 43 due to breast cancer. During her middle and high school years, she spent four years living in the United States, which allowed her to become fluent in English and achieve the highest level in the Eiken English proficiency test. She was a graduate of Sophia University in Tokyo.

Shimamura's voice acting career began in 1991 and continued actively until 2012. She was known for her versatile vocal range, capable of portraying young boys, youthful women, and elderly characters. Early in her career, she was credited under her maiden name, Hiroko Yonekura. She later adopted the stage name Kaoru Shimamura, and in May 2005, she changed the spelling of her stage name from "薫" to the katakana "カオル".

Her filmography includes a wide array of roles in television animation, original video animations (OVAs), and theatrical films throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In the OVA Genocyber, she provided the voice for the character Rat. She voiced Rui in the OVA series Cool Devices and Yoshiko Serizawa in the OVA Dōkyūsei: Climax. Other notable anime roles included Ran Asuka in Devilman Lady, Rex in Macross 7, Kyoko Ono in KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple, and multiple roles in the television series Ping Pong Club. She was also the voice of the CGI mascot Ralf in the long-running television program Rank Kingdom from its early days, becoming closely associated with the character's catchphrase.

Her fluency in English led to work on numerous educational projects, narration for TOEIC materials, and dubbing for foreign productions. She was the first Japanese voice for Dora in the localized version of Dora the Explorer and for the character Kelly in Handy Manny. Her final credited work was in the video game Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse in 2013.