Pretty much every session was hysterical and we laughed a lot. The cast is truly one of the most fun and talented that I’ve worked with. We all like to improv and riff off of each other. Tara and E.G. especially have a very adorable chemistry together. When we first started the show, they were constantly imitating voices of women from the Jerry Springer show which always cracked me up.

I actually did not watch much T.V. growing up. When my family did watch it, we watched one program together as a family maybe once or twice a week. The rest of the time I practiced piano, violin, and singing several hours a day or I would be rehearsing for plays. I didn’t really even know what a voiceover was until I started booking voice acting jobs quite unexpectedly. Before that, I was pursuing an acting career. I discovered my passion for voice acting quite by accident as I worked more in voiceovers and found out how much I loved it. By the time I was in my early twenties, I was working on several series at the same time and landing guest roles on many others. However, at that time, I didn’t really even tell anyone because I didn’t think I would be respected as a serious actress. People did not have the same reverence then for voice actors as they do now. Since then I’ve been lucky to work with so many great talents: Rob Paulsen, Jim Cummings, Larraine Newman, Dan Castellaneta, and, of course, the whole PPG cast. I’ve come to have enormous respect for the greats that paved the way like Mel Blank (whom I never met), and June Foray and Frank Welker (both of whom I’ve had the honor of working with). They’ve all inspired me and I’ve learned from each of them.

The toughest voice sessions for me are always anything with a lot of screaming. In particular, I did some panicked screaming for a lead actress in a film. The director wanted it to be very primal and the actress was wise not to have done it. I did some serious damage to my vocal chords and it took several months to completely heal. I had an important call back a couple of days later but my voice was too hoarse so I lost out on that opportunity. I’ve learned from that experience and now I am more careful with my voice and will turn down work that could be too vocally damaging.

Yes, I used to read them to my daughter when she was little. I love the artwork. One of my wonderful fans bought me some of the more recent ones at the 2013 Comikaze convention.

That’s an interesting question. I don’t like doing voices that are already established by another actor unless the person is not available to do it for some reason. I prefer doing voices that are my own creations. When you are doing your own character it is a truly freeing experience. The thing about voice-alike work is that it very hard to capture the spirit of the person. Also, if that person is still alive and being hired to do that voice, why bother? You might sound very close to how that character sounds but to inhabit their spirit is a rare thing.

You do this by staying truthful in the scene and having a deep understanding of what is needed from your character to make the script work. If you don’t believe what you’re doing no one else will. In animation acting, it is important to really throw yourself into the reality of what the character is going through and feel the emotions of your character. It’s also important to create the world of the script by visualizing it because you are just in an empty recording booth with a script and a microphone. Oftentimes you’re by yourself and you don’t have the luxury of other actors to respond to. I do a lot of voice work in Film and T.V. where the acting has to stay in a very “real” place but acting in animation is absolutely no different. You still have to maintain believability even though the situation may be a little more heightened, or bizarre, or the stakes may be higher for your character.

Ahh….knowing how to sustain a voice you’ve created is probably the main thing that separates the voice actors who work all the time and those who don’t. I had a well known casting director tell me that you can’t teach people how to do it. However, it is a skill that I believe you can learn. Part of it is developing your ear. Great voice actors have an incredibly sophisticated ability to hear subtle nuances in a speaking voice. The next important thing is developing your muscle memory by memorizing how the muscles feel that you use in your throat, face and body to make that particular vocal sound. The last and most important thing is developing the ability to recall the voice you created. Sometimes, I’ve had students create a fantastic voice but not be able to recreate it only moments later. Tools like recording while you practice, creating a catch phrase, and having a visual picture of the character are three great ways to help with recall of a voice. When I coach, I mostly am teaching people to hear and feel when they are in the character or when they’ve dropped out of the character. When they begin to learn this skill, it’s a great moment because I know they will soon be on their way.

The Cironelian Chrysalis Eater in Teen Titans is one that is probably most different from my natural voice. The character starts out as an Alien Woman with an angelic sounding voice who then reveals her true nature and turns into a raspy evil monster.

Tress MacNeille would be one. She is a great actress, incredibly funny, and the range of voices she can do is astounding.

I really have been so blessed to work on a lot of amazing projects with a lot of incredibly talented people. Most of my career has been pretty charmed. Of course, when I was in my twenties starting out I didn’t know I would be so lucky to have a long career. I was just happy to book each job. Some of the difficult things I’ve had to overcome are that throughout the years I have been very close to getting many huge projects that in the end were given to someone else and some of my best work has been on projects that never aired or will ever be heard. Learning how to be resilient after disappointments and to retain your enthusiasm is one of the most important lessons for a performer to master.

One special moment that I will share, and he will probably laugh if he ever reads it, is the time I first met Mark Hamill. He came in to record a guest voice on the PPG series. I remember sitting on the couch at Salami Studio where we recorded the first seasons of PPG’s and seeing him walking in. My mind kept saying, “That’s Luke Skywalker!!!!” Of course, I didn’t say anything out loud but my mind was tripping. Then he came over and extended his hand to me and said “Hi, I’m Mark Hamill.” I just love the genuineness of that moment. It says so much about him. Of course, I also have to mention his unbelievable talent and passion for voice acting. He is truly amazing to watch.

When I’m not working, I especially love quiet moments in nature, hanging out with the love of my life Jeffrey, my daughter, his two children, and our cats. I also love to meditate and sing.

The most important thing in life is to do what you love. If performing is something that you must do and it brings you joy then throw yourself into it with all your heart. I always have told people that the only reason I pursued acting is because I was too stupid and too driven to not pursue it. First, it’s important to find at least one good mentor – someone that knows the craft and can lead you in the right direction. Next, study like crazy. Third, surround yourself with positive people who support you. Lastly, watch your own mental attitude. It is so important. The dialogue that goes on inside your brain affects the life you create for yourself. So when that negative mind wants to start churning and drawing your attention, disengage and move on to a better thought.

I was very lucky in the beginning because I had a very young sounding voice which got me lots of work doing teenager and kid voices. Then, the first time I saw someone record two voices in a conversation with each other in a recording session, I realized I needed to learn even more. I started to study with a woman named Marilyn Shreffler who took me under her wing and became my mentor. She played the role of Olive Oyl when the Popeye series was rebooted in 1978. She also was amazing at doing young boy voices. She held classes in her home and we students would practice doing voices in front of each other with her input. She taught me so much. One misconception about voice acting is that all of us just do it without any training. When you listen to people like James Arnold Taylor talk about how much time he puts into studying an actor that he is going to voice-alike, you will begin to realize that it is not all about just being able to do it out of thin air. Of course talent is important but most voice actors know it takes work to succeed.

“Meet the Beat-alls” was a classic episode that was written during a time when we had some really fantastic writers like Amy Keating Rogers on board. I’m also a little partial to the “Rowdy Ruff Boys.” There is nothing more fun than watching Rob Paulsen doing the voices of Brick and Boomer and Roger L. Jackson playing Butch. Another one of my favorite episodes is the controversial Rock Opera, “See me, Feel me, Gnomey.” I loved the fact that the whole episode was sung because everyone in the PPG cast is a terrific singer. Jess Harnell played the gnome and was exceptionally brilliant in the role.

The most fun character I have gotten to play to date is the role of Car’l in the game Broken Ages. Car’l is a “delightfully apathetic character full of unexpected wit and cynicism” according to a review by Emily Lemay. Getting to say lines like, “Honestly, I wish he had just had an affair like most married men instead of dragging us all up here” was absolute heaven. I have to say that the writing by Tim Schafer is pure perfection; Comedic writing at its best. Getting a chance to work with Tim Schafer in combination with the wonderful voice director Khris Brown is one of my sweetest recording memories to date.

Even though I had already done roles in two other animated movies (North Star in My Little Pony: The Movie, and Collette and her newborn puppies in Pound Puppies the Legend of Big Paw), landing the role of Tanya Mousekewitz in the film American Tail: Fievel Goes West was probably one of the first big defining moments in my career. When I met legendary composer James Horner for the first time, he said that because the songs for the character of Tanya were so important, Stephen Spielberg had given him free reign to choose whoever he wanted for the role. I felt really at home singing for James and somehow I was fortunate that it was in my destiny to get the role. I remember feeling like Barbara Streisand when I recorded because the studio was warehouse-like in size with a microphone hanging in the middle of it. It was kind of a surreal and dreamlike experience. The music and the lyrics to the song James wrote, “Dreams to Dream,” are beautiful, incredibly uplifting, and inspiring. To this date, it is one of my favorite songs and I still love to sing it.

Flax seed tea with fresh lemon juice and honey is the miracle drink that has even gotten me through jobs even when I’ve had laryngitis. There is no worse feeling than being excited that you’re hired to do a voice job and then you start to feel that little something starting in your throat a day or two before. It’s the bane of a singer and voiceover artist’s existence. Most of us voiceover people are “hardcore” and go to the job no matter what. Recently I was at the tail end of laryngitis before recording a PPG game. After days of no voice, I didn’t know if my voice was going to be there or not. Some pleading to the voice gods ensued and I went with my trusty flax seed tea. When I got there, Tara was in the booth before me and in between takes I could hear that she was in the midst of a terrible cold. On the recording though, no one ever knew that either of us had been sick.

Blossom’s voice came to me very naturally after I saw a picture of her and read the sides from the script. I realized how spunky, tough, and smart she was and that’s the voice that came out. Sometimes you get lucky and just feel an instant connection to a character.
Tanya’s voice came pretty effortlessly as well. The role of Tanya was originally going to be played by another actress. I was hired to replace her because James Horner, the composer, really like how I sang. The songs that James wrote, especially “The Girl You Left Behind,’ were not easy for someone who was not a trained singer. When you replace someone’s voice it gives you a very clear insight in what they don’t want the voice to sound like. It’s also a little difficult because in this case they had already animated the character to her line readings so I was locked into the rhythms of her speaking pattern. Luckily I had had a lot of experience looping other people’s lines changing the reads and they liked what I came up with!