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Stephanie Nonoshita Topalian (Armenian: Ստեֆանի Թոփալյան) Western Armenian Սթեֆանի Թօփալեան, professionally known as Stephanie (ステファニー (Sutefanī), born August 5, 1987) is an American singer and actress of Armenian and Japanese descent. Stephanie is signed with SME Records Japan (part of Sony Music). She released two albums, self-titled Stephanie in 2008 and Colors of my Voice in 2009 and has won the Japanese Music Awards in 2007. A number of her songs have been featured in Japanese films and she has also taken roles in a few Japanese films, notably Pride and Tokyo Tribe. In 2014, she was included in the Armenian super group project Genealogy to represent Armenia in the 2015 version of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Face the Shadow".
Early life and education
She was born to a Japanese mother and an Armenian American father in Los Angeles, California. Although Stephanie is residing in Japan she has a strong commitment to her Armenian background and is very attached to her grandparents. Her paternal grandfather Jean Pierre Topalian was from France and her grandmother Koharik Mikaelian Topalian was born in Lebanon.[citation needed]
She began singing at a young age and 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 television series 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 also 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 and in 2014 in Tokyo Tribe and a short film.[citation needed]
