Laura Bailey | |
---|---|
![]() Bailey in 2019 | |
Born | |
Other names | Elle Deets [a] |
Occupation | Voice actress |
Years active | 1999–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 1 |
Website | laurabaileyvo |
Laura Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American voice actress. She made her voice acting debut as Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Z and has since voiced Emily / Glitter Lucky in Glitter Force , Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket , Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood , the title character in the Funimation dub of Shin-Chan , and Maka Albarn in Soul Eater . She is a cast member of the web series Critical Role , playing Vex'ahlia ("Vex"), Jester Lavorre, and Imogen Temult, among others.
Bailey's video game voice roles include Rayne in the BloodRayne franchise, Kira Carsen in Star Wars: The Old Republic , Kainé in Nier , Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft , Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4 , the Female Protagonist in Persona 3 Portable , Chun-Li in Street Fighter , Serah Farron in Final Fantasy XIII , the title role in Catherine , Serana in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard , Persephone in the Skylanders series, Oriana Lawson in Mass Effect 3 , Lucina in Fire Emblem Awakening , Kushina Uzumaki in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Abigail "Fetch" Walker in Infamous Second Son and First Light , Fiona in Tales from the Borderlands , Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy , and Kait Diaz in Gears of War . For her voice role as Abby Anderson in the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II , she won the BAFTA Award for Best Performer in a Leading Role and the Game Award for Best Performance, as well as received a nomination for the D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character.
Bailey has also voiced Catwoman in Batman: The Telltale Series , Supergirl in Injustice 2 , Mary Jane Watson in the Marvel's Spider-Man series, and Black Widow in a number of Marvel projects (particularly the television series Avengers Assemble and the video game Marvel's Avengers ).
Bailey was born in Mississippi [1] on May 28, 1981. [2] [3] She has an older sister named Jenny. [1] Her father was in the Air Force, causing the family to move around frequently. [1] They lived in Oklahoma before moving to San Antonio, Texas, and then moved throughout North Texas, all before Bailey was six years old. [1] They eventually settled in Allen, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. [1] She had a passing interest in acting and performed in school plays, but was planning to become a biologist. [1] She did not realize she could make a career out of acting until she watched a Dawson's Creek behind-the-scenes special in which Katie Holmes was interviewed. [1] [4] [5] She attended the theatre program at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, [4] where she participated in productions of the plays Suburbia, Through a Glass Onion, and Don't Rock the Jukebox. [6]
Voice actor Kent Williams spotted Bailey at one of her college plays and invited her to audition for Funimation while they were working on Dragon Ball Z . [7] Her first major role on Dragon Ball Z was Kid Trunks, [7] which she portrayed with a raspy voice. [8] Bailey initially tried to do the role alongside her college career, but stopped attending on the advice of her lecturer to focus on voice acting. [9] She voiced the starring character Marlene Angel in Blue Gender , which was the first project Funimation did outside of the Dragon Ball world, [5] and Keiko Yukimura in Yu Yu Hakusho , which ran on Cartoon Network.
Bailey was cast for the starring role of Tohru Honda in the anime Fruits Basket . She said that Tohru's character has helped her be more positive: "I was so inspired by her character by her, joy, and outlook on life that, you know, you wanna emulate that." [7] She later voiced Lust, one of the villains in Fullmetal Alchemist , and Sana Kurata in Kodocha . [10]
Bailey had been working with Funimation for about four years before she started ADR directing. She worked on Blue Gender: The Warrior and some episodes of Case Closed . Her first major ADR directing project was Gunslinger Girl , in which she also voices Henrietta. She also co-directed parts of Kodocha. [10] She became a line producer for the Funimation dub of Shin-Chan and also voiced the title character.
Bailey's video game voice roles include Rayne in the BloodRayne franchise, [11] Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft , Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4 , the Female Protagonist in Persona 3 Portable, Chun-Li in Street Fighter , Serah Farron in Final Fantasy XIII , Blaze the Cat in Sonic the Hedgehog , the title role in Catherine , Serana in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard , multiple characters in Fallout: New Vegas , Lucina in Fire Emblem Awakening , Abigail "Fetch" Walker in Infamous Second Son and First Light , Fiona in Tales from the Borderlands , Spartan Olympia Vale in Halo 5: Guardians , Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy , and Kait Diaz in Gears of War . [12] [13]
In 2020, Bailey starred as Abby Anderson in the video game The Last of Us Part II , a role which won her the BAFTA Video Games Award for Best Performer in a Leading Role and the Best Performance award at The Game Awards 2020, despite receiving death threats in response to the game's divisive character choices and plot twists. [14] [15] In 2022, Bailey was nominated for Best VA Performance (EN) at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. [16]
In addition to her voice over roles, Bailey has also appeared in several live action productions. In 2001, she played a minor role in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger (titled "Saturday Night") as the daughter of a club owner (Frank Stallone Jr.) with ties to the Mafia. She later had a brief appearance in an episode of One Tree Hill ("It gets worse at night"), which was filmed in Texas. She has appeared in the films Mr. Brooks , Ruffian , and The Staircase Murders .
Bailey is also a cast member of the popular Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role , where she played Vex'ahlia ("Vex") in Campaign One, Jester Lavorre in Campaign Two, and Imogen Temult Campaign Three. [17] [18] Critical Role was both the Webby Winner and the People's Voice Winner in the "Games (Video Series & Channels)" category at the 2019 Webby Awards; [19] the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019 Shorty Awards. [20] After becoming hugely successful, the Critical Role cast left the Geek & Sundry network in early 2018 and set up their own production company, Critical Role Productions. [21] [22] [23] [24] Soon after, they aimed to raise $750,000 on Kickstarter to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. [25] [17] In November 2019, Amazon Prime Video announced that they had acquired the streaming rights to this animated series, now titled The Legend of Vox Machina; [26] Bailey reprises her role as Vex. [27] Bailey is also one of the narrators for the audiobook edition of the novel Critical Role: Vox Machina – Kith & Kin (2021). [28] [29]
Bailey made an appearance in the season finale of HBO's live-action adaptation of The Last of Us in a cameo role as a Firefly nurse, a character she voiced in the original game. [30]
Bailey has partial Filipino ancestry. [31] She was voice actress Colleen Clinkenbeard's roommate while the two worked at Funimation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. [32]
On September 25, 2011, Bailey married voice actor Travis Willingham in Camarillo, California. [33] [34] [35] [36] Having briefly dated when they were younger, they reconnected years later. [1] Both have done voice work together in Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. They currently live in Los Angeles [8] [37] and have a son born on June 28, 2018. [38] [36]
† | Denotes series that have not yet been released |
Year | Series | Role | Notes | Source [39] |
---|---|---|---|---|
2011–16 | Monster High | Various | Webisodes | [ citation needed ] |
2011 | The Super Hero Squad Show | Firestar | 2 episode | [13] |
2011–13 | Winx Club | Princess Tressa, Serena | Nickelodeon dub | Website [63] [64] |
2013 | Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload | Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow | Television special | [13] |
2013–19 | Avengers Assemble | Black Widow, Gamora, Darkstar, others | [13] | |
2014–15 | Ultimate Spider-Man | Black Widow | 2 episodes | [13] |
Regular Show | Sheena Albright, Natalia, others | [13] [65] [66] [67] | ||
2015 | Batman Unlimited | Cheetah | Web series | [68] |
Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled | Black Widow | Television special | [13] | |
2016 | RWBY | Amber | Episode: "Beginning of the End" | [69] |
The Powerpuff Girls | Princess Bluebelle | Episode: "Once Upon a Townsville" | ||
Future-Worm! | Various | [70] [71] [72] | ||
2017 | Rick and Morty | Eli's Girlfriend | Episode: "Rickmancing the Stone" | [13] |
Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! | Stephanie | Episode: "Mysteries on the Disorient Express" | [13] | |
2017–20 | Spider-Man | Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen / Ghost-Spider, Black Widow, Crimson Dynamo, various voices | [13] | |
2018 | Constantine: City of Demons | Nightmare Nurse | Web series | [73] |
2018 | Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Black Panther - Trouble in Wakanda | Black Widow, Reporter | Television film | [13] |
2019–20 | DuckTales | Palus, Mail Lady, Launchpad's Girlfriends, Capsule, Safety Inspector, Springbreakers | 7 episodes | [13] |
2019 | Lego Marvel Spider-Man: Vexed by Venom | Gwen Stacy / Ghost-Spider | Television film | [13] |
Ben 10 | Cornflower McJoy, Jenny, Debby, Reenactor #5 | 2 episodes | [13] | |
Guardians of the Galaxy | Posh Woman, Lead Squirrel, Additional Animals | Episode: "Black Vortex" | [13] | |
2021 | Family Guy | Judge, Dutch Daughter | Episode: "Who's Brian Now?" | |
American Dad! | Jennifer, Female Flower Thief, Piper | 2 episodes | ||
2022–present | The Legend of Vox Machina | Vex'ahlia "Vex" Vessar, Elaina | Executive Producer | [74] [75] |
2023 | Lego Marvel Avengers: Code Red | Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Little Girl, Sister | Disney+ television special | [13] |
2024 | Lego Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition | Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Statue of Liberty | ||
Secret Level | Smokes | Episode: "Concord: Tale of the Implacable" | [76] | |
TBA | Mighty Nein† | Jester Lavorre | In production | [77] |
Year | Series | Role | Notes | Source [39] |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Resident Evil: Degeneration | Angela Miller | Limited theatrical release | |
2012 | Mass Effect: Paragon Lost | Kamille | [13] | |
2014 | Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods | Kid Trunks, Gotenks | Gotenks shared with Kara Edwards limited theatrical release | [13] |
2016 | Only Yesterday | Nanako Okajima | Limited theatrical release | |
2022 | Fruits Basket: Prelude | Tohru Honda | [78] | |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Critical Role: Vox Machina – Kith & Kin | Vex'ahlia "Vex" Vessar | [162] | |
2022 | Critical Role: The Mighty Nein – The Nine Eyes of Lucien | Jester Lavorre | [163] | |
2024 | Critical Role: Bells Hells – What Doesn't Break | Imogen Temult | [164] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Source [39] |
---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Walker, Texas Ranger | Roberta | Episode: "Saturday Night" | Resume |
2003 | Graduation Day | Marni | [165] | |
2007 | Four Sheets to the Wind | Francie | Resume | |
Mr. Brooks | Flight Attendant | Resume | ||
Thief | 1 episode [c] | Resume | ||
The Staircase Murders | Margaret Peterson | Television film | [166] | |
Ruffian | Cassie | Resume | ||
One Tree Hill | Girl No. 2 | Episode: "It Gets Worse at Night" | Resume | |
Underbelly | Sara Hotchkiss | Resume | ||
2015 | To Have and to Hold | Jane Pierce | Resume | |
2023 | The Last of Us | Nurse | Episode: "Look for the Light" | [167] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
2015–present | Critical Role |
| Cast member Actual play Dungeons & Dragons web series | [168] [169] [170] |
2015 | Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana | Lemley | Cast member RPG web series | [171] [172] |
2017 | Escape the Night (Season 2) | Narrator | Each episode | [173] |
2023 | Candela Obscura | Arlo Black | 3 episodes Actual play Illuminated Worlds web series | [174] [175] |
The players from the original campaign are all reprising the roles of their RPG characters, and they will also serve as the executive producers for the new animated series.