Akeno Watanabe is a Japanese voice actress and narrator affiliated with the agency Office Osawa. She was born on November 18, 1982, in Chiba Prefecture. Watanabe began her entertainment career as a child actor with the theater company Gekidan Nihon Jido. Inspired by the performance of voice actress Megumi Ogata, she transitioned to voice acting, making her debut in 2001 with a role in the anime I My Me! Strawberry Eggs. She is known for her distinctive, husky voice, which allows her to portray a wide range of characters, from young boys and assertive women to more subdued and mysterious roles.

Watanabe's career spans numerous notable roles across various anime series. In her early career, she gained recognition for leading roles such as Robin Sena in Witch Hunter Robin and Chachamaru Karakuri in the Negima! series. She has since built an extensive filmography that includes some of the most popular franchises in recent years. She voices Midnight (Nemuri Kayama) in My Hero Academia, a role she has played since 2016, and also provided the voice for a young Izuku Midoriya in the same series. She is also known as Gou Matsuoka in Free!, Rito Yuki in the To Love-Ru series, Hamsuke in Overlord and Isekai Quartet, and Halle Lidner in Death Note. Her versatility is further demonstrated by roles like the villainous Sylvia in the Konosuba: Legend of Crimson film, the amazonian Aisha Belka in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, and the mysterious Akino Yugiri in Engage Kiss. She also voiced the twin characters Dori and Gura in the Utawarerumono series.

Her work is not limited to television anime. Watanabe has a significant presence in original video animations (OVAs) and films, such as Liz Ricarro in Immortal Grand Prix and reprising her role as Aisha Belka in DanMachi. She is also an active voice actress in video games, with roles including Shinra in Final Fantasy X-2, Mao in Tales of Rebirth, Rose in the Street Fighter IV and V series, and Sharla in Xenoblade Chronicles. Furthermore, she contributes extensively to the dubbing of foreign films and television series into Japanese, providing voices for actors like Amber Heard in Drive Angry and Camila Cabello in Cinderella, as well as for characters in animated series such as Stevonnie in Steven Universe.

Watanabe is known to be an avid fan of robot anime and the Super Robot Wars video game series. This personal interest famously led to her being cast as the character Ibis Douglas in the Super Robot Wars series, making her an "ascended fangirl". She also has a personal preference for using the masculine first-person pronoun "boku," a trait that complements her frequent casting in male or boyish roles. In addition to her voice work, she is involved in music as a member of the heavy metal band Chibirari. Her career continues to be active, with recent and upcoming roles including Lady Gandal in the 2024 series Grendizer U and as a voice in the 2025 film My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.