Born on 22 January 1997 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Erika Ikuta was raised in Tokyo where she moved when she was five years old. As an adolescent, Erika Ikuta was drawn to the piano, which ultimately propelled her to explore the disciplines of singing and dancing. In 2011, the Japanese actor and singer began her career as a member of the female idol group Nogizaka46 with whom she was able to hone her craft across a range of releases and live performances. The group's first single, "Guru Guru Curtain," arrived the following year and kicked open a door to the national stage that provided a plethora of opportunities for Erika Ikuta. In September 2012, she landed the leading role of Alice in Nogizaka46's stage musical Sixteen Principal before taking a two-year break in 2014 to return to education. In 2016, she resumed her endeavours to play Cosette in a 30th-anniversary production of Les Miserables in Japan—later reprising this role in 2019—also joining her Nogizaka46 bandmates for the chart-topping 2016 album Sorezore no Isu, which was crowned number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. Another two studio albums with the group emerged—2017's Umarete kara Hajimete Mita Yume (#3) and 2019's Ima ga Omoide ni Naru made (#4)—before she announced her graduation from Nogizaka46 in 2021. She became the Japanese voice of Asha in the Japanese dubbing of the Disney film Wish in 2023, contributing the "This Wish" single to the soundtrack as well as cast effort "Welcome To Rosas."