Stephanie Nonoshita Topalian (born August 5, 1987), known simply as Stephanie (ステファニー, Sutefanī), is an American singer and actress of Armenian and Japanese descent who is signed with SME Records Japan, which is a part of Sony Music. She released two albums: her self-titled debut in 2008 and Colors of my Voice in 2009. She has won the Japanese Music Awards in 2007. A number of her songs have been featured in several Japanese films. She had roles in a few Japanese films, notably Pride and Tokyo Tribe. In 2015, she represented Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as a member of Armenian super group project Genealogy with the song "Face the Shadow".
Career
She began singing at a young age. At age 13, she moved to Japan with her family. At 14, Stephanie sent an audio demo tape of her singing to various music productions,[1] and received a response from a Japanese music producer Joe Rinoie. Rinoie was impressed with her singing, and at the age of 19 Stephanie made her major debut in Japan from SME Records (Sony).[1] She achieved the "Best New Artist Award" at the prestigious 49th Japan Record Awards in 2007 and afterwards released two albums.[citation needed]
Her debut single "Kimiga Iru Kagiri" and the follow-up single "Because of You" became the ending themes of the anime Kiss Dum.[citation needed] Her fifth single, “Changin", was also featured as the last ending theme of the anime D.Gray-man. In early 2008, her single "Friends" became the second ending theme for the anime Gundam 00. The song appeared in the Top 10 of Japanese Oricon charts.[citation needed]
As an actress Stephanie debuted in the film Pride in 2009, based on Yukari Ichijo's shōjo comic.[citation needed] She portrayed the protagonist Shio Asami and took part in the film's theme song, "Pride ~A Part of Me~" that featured SRM. Aside from Pride, Stephanie also starred in 2009 in the short film It's All Good which was fully scripted in English. She was cast in 2014 to be in Tokyo Tribe and a short film.[citation needed]
