Ayu Sakurai is a former pornographic actress. She was born in Miyazaki Prefecture, she was formerly represented by T-Powers.

Her hobby is cleaning, and her special talents are playing volleyball and making creative cuisine. Having an interest in the entertainment world since childhood, while living in Osaka Prefecture she made her AV debut after being scouted there. She calls herself a "chippai actress" and touted her small bust as an appealing point. She frequently said she was limiting the period of her activity as an AV actress. There are various anecdotes regarding her career before her debut.

While an planning single actress or "Kikatan", she broke through 100 appearances in January 2014, broke through 100 single appearances in October, and cast in 300 in December. While an exclusive actress in September 2015 she appeared in 200 works. Her total number of releases, including total compilations etc., were over 800 works.

After retirement as an AV actress, she has worked under the stage name Yoshimi Sakurai.

She made her AV debut from Prestige in March 2013, holding her first photo session. On November, she won in the female department of the signboard model general election held at "Mirupoke" Kansai version.

In April 2014, she was nominated only for Kikatan actress at the DMM Adult Award Best Rookie Award, but did not win. In August, she won the 13th place in the sexy actress popularity vote which appeared as a character of Yakuza 0 and won the cast right. She participated in Japan Adult Expo in November. On December, she appeared, along with Ai Uehara, Kitagawa Erika, etc. in the Asian Adult Expo in Macau as Chinese: 櫻井歩. In the Weekly Asahi Geinō AV Grand Award 2014 Actress category, she won the Excellent Actress award along with Minami Kojima and Aika Yumeno. She held her first off-line party. In DM14.R18's annual AV actress ranking in 2014, she played the top 10 in all three sectors.

In February 2015, she joined Million Girls Z. In March, in commemoration of Tsutaya Adult opening, she was inaugurated as monthly store manager with Chika Arimura, Saki Hatsumi, Ayaka Tomoda, and Rika Hoshimi. She later made her first appearance at a direct-to-video release. In April, she appeared at MGZ's first terrestrial regular programme TV. which started at Tokyo MX. She also appeared in the Shanghai AAE 2015 with Julia and Saki Kozai. She became an exclusive to Million on May. On July, MGZ made their major debut with "I ♥ MGZ". She appeared in a Shanghai event in August with Ai Uehara, Rola Misaki, and Kaede Fuyutsuki. She earned MVP at the Sky Perfect Swimming Tournament of the 1st Sexy Actress Darake! Million Girls Z later won Best Performance Award at the "Sexy Idol Music Festa 2015". In November, in the "MGZ Asia Tour 2015 'Hatsukoi'" in Guangzhou, Macau, China, in which the first single live performance of MGZ started. On December, she received the 2015 Promotion Award at the KMP Award held in Macau.