Several individuals are named Kanae who are associated with voice acting in anime, making it important to distinguish between them. The name most commonly refers to a professional voice actress, while another is a VTuber who performed a voice role in a specific anime project.

The professional voice actress Kanae Itou was born on November 26, 1986, in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. She is affiliated with the talent agency Aoni Production and the music label Lantis. After graduating from the Amusement Media Academy in 2007, her first major role came in the same year when she was cast as the lead heroine, Amu Hinamori, in the hit anime series Shugo Chara!. This performance was a critical success and established her as a rising talent in the industry. Her early career also involved membership in the voice acting groups Koecchi and Rirachicchi, which disbanded before her mainstream debut.

Kanae Itou has built an extensive filmography with a wide variety of notable roles. Some of her most recognized performances include Ruiko Saten in A Certain Scientific Railgun, Elsie in The World God Only Knows, Ohana Matsumae in Hanasaku Iroha, Sena Kashiwazaki in Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends, Yui in Sword Art Online, and Nana Astar Deviluke in To Love-Ru. Her versatility as a performer has allowed her to voice characters across many genres. In addition to anime, she has lent her voice to numerous video game franchises, such as the Tales of the World series, God Eater, and Granblue Fantasy.

Her work has been recognized with major industry accolades. At the 4th Seiyu Awards in 2010, she won the Award for Best New Actress. She followed this achievement by winning the Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 5th Seiyu Awards in 2011. Beyond her voice roles, she has also pursued a music career, releasing several solo singles and albums. A notable recurring collaboration in her career has been with fellow voice actress Aki Toyosaki, with whom she has worked on numerous anime projects and hosted radio shows.

Separately, a VTuber named Kanae, who is part of the Nijisanji talent agency and forms the unit ChroNoiR with Kuzuha, also has a credit in anime voice acting. He voiced the character Kanae, a priest and a fictionalized version of himself, in the 2023 short anime ChroNoiR Episode.0. This anime serves as an origin story for the VTuber unit. The character Kuzuha was voiced by his ChroNoiR partner, Kuzuha. For this project, both Kanae and Kuzuha performed as voice actors for the first time, and they also performed the ending theme song, Wanderers.