Marisha Ray | |
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Born | Marisha Ray Huber May 10th, 1989 |
Occupation(s) | Voice actress, host, producer, creative director |
Years active | 2005–present |
Spouse |
Marisha Ray Huber is an American voice actress, host, producer, and creative director. She is best known for her roles as herself and her characters Keyleth, Beauregard, and Laudna on the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role . In video games, she most notably voiced Margaret in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Persona Q , Laura S. Arseid in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series, and Miranda in Metal Gear: Survive. [1]
Marisha Ray Huber [Note 1] was born in Mount Washington, Kentucky, [3] the daughter of a mother who works as a dog groomer and a father who sells truck tires. She hails from an extended family of Louisville farmers, having helped her grandfather with chores around his tobacco farm as she was growing up from when she was around six years old. [Note 2] At the age of 12, she began acting at the Actors Theater of Louisville. [4] In 2008, at the age of 19, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. [5] Her parents supported the decision and drove her there. [Note 3] She arrived around the time of the Writers Guild strike and so, having difficulty in finding auditions, she began canvassing for the 2008 presidential election to support herself financially. [Note 4] As the election came to a close, she took up street performing on Hollywood Boulevard by tap-dancing for a short time, before eventually moving on to full-time busking by dressing up as Tinkerbell for three years. [Note 5]
Ray produced a Batgirl fan series in 2012 called Batgirl: Spoiled, in which she played the titular character. [6] [7] [8] In 2015, she began co-starring in the web series Critical Role , on which she joins fellow voice actors in playing Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition . Her character for the first campaign was Keyleth, a half-elf druid. [9] [10] Her character for the second campaign was Beauregard, a human monk. [11] In the third campaign, she plays as the multiclassed warlock/sorcerer Laudna. [12] [13]
She was involved in many of Geek & Sundry's other productions, including co-hosting Key Questions, [14] [15] acting in Sagas of Sundry, [16] and producing Signal Boost! [17] She announced her appointment to the post of creative director for Geek & Sundry on July 28, 2017; [18] however, she stepped down from the position in June 2018. [19] [20]
After becoming hugely successful, the Critical Role cast left the Geek & Sundry network in early 2019 and set up their own production company, Critical Role Productions; [21] [22] [23] [24] Ray became the creative director for the company. [19] [20] In February 2019, Critical Role began to air on its own channel and was no longer broadcast by Geek & Sundry. [25] Soon after, Critical Role Productions aimed to raise $750,000 on Kickstarter to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. [26] 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; [27] Ray reprised her role as Keyleth. [28] Ahead of the series premiere in January 2022, Amazon renewed the series for a second season [29] which premiered in January 2023. [30] On October 6, 2022, Amazon renewed the series for a third season. [31] [32] Madison Durham, for Polygon in February 2022, commented that "Ray has been instrumental in making Critical Role into the sprawling multimedia company that it is today, contributing as the creative lead for shows like All Work No Play, Exandria Unlimited , and more. In interviews and media appearances, the persona she presents behind the scenes is distinctly different from Keyleth's brand of awkward deference. Ray appears to command the room, regularly making difficult decisions that impact the entire organization". [33]
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; [34] the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019 Shorty Awards. [35]
A Familiar Problem, a one-page RPG co-written by Ray and Grant Howitt, was released in June 2022; it was published by the Critical Role Productions imprint Darrington Press. [36] Also in June 2022, Critical Role Productions launched a new record label, Scanlan Shorthalt Music, to release original music inspired by Critical Role and the Exandria setting. Along with the label announcement, they released their first album titled Welcome to Tal'Dorei. The new project is led by Ray and Senior Producer Maxwell James. [37] [38] [39] In November 2022, the label released a second album titled Welcome to Wildemount. [40]
Ray married fellow voice actor and Critical Role co-star Matthew Mercer on October 21, 2017. [41] [42] [43]
In January 2023, Ray was announced as part of the Creator Clash 2 charity boxing card, scheduled for April 15, 2023. [44] [45]
1 fight | 0 wins | 1 loss |
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By decision | 0 | 1 |
No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
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1 | Loss | 0–1 | Haley Sharpe | UD | 5 | April 15, 2023 | Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010–11 | 1000 Ways to Die | Tina the Video Gamer, Trudie the Karaoke Girl | Television series Episodes: "Stupid Is As Death Does" and "Death On A Stick" | [56] |
2012 | Batgirl: Spoiled | Stephanie Brown | Fan-made web series | [6] [7] [8] |
2012–16 | Super Power Beat Down | Herself | Web series | [57] |
2013 | School of Thrones | Melisandre | Parody web series | [6] [58] [59] |
Walk of Shame | Anne | Television series | [56] | |
Chastity Bites | Flashback Virgin 5 | Film | [60] | |
2015–present | Critical Role |
| RPG Web series | [6] [61] |
2016–21 | Talks Machina | Herself | Web talk show | [62] [63] |
2017 | Sagas of Sundry: Madness | Abigail Persimmon | RPG Web series | [16] |
2018 | Key Question | Herself; co-host | Web series | [15] |
2018–21 | L.A. by Night | Ellenore | RPG Web series Episodes: "Find My Home" and "Live on the Moon" | [64] [65] |
2019 | Pub Draw | Herself | Web series | [66] [67] |
2019 | UnDeadwood | Arabella Whitlock | Web limited series | [68] [69] |
2020 | Dimension 20: Pirates of Leviathan | Sunny Biscotto | RPG Web anthology series | [70] |
2022–present | 4-Sided Dive | Herself | Web talk show | [71] [72] |
2022 | Exandria Unlimited: Calamity | Patia Por'Co | RPG Web anthology series | [73] [74] |
2023 | Candela Obscura | Beatrix Monroe | Actual play web series using the Illuminated Worlds system; 3 episodes | [75] |
Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress. She became known as a child actress for her role as Chrissy Seaver on Growing Pains (1990–1992). As an adult, she is known for television roles as Amber Ahmed on The Killing (2011–2012) and Patterson on Blindspot (2015–2020). She has appeared in films such as What Women Want (2000), The Help (2011), and Much Ado About Nothing (2012), and is a cast member on the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role (2015–present). She became the president of the show's charity branch, the Critical Role Foundation, upon its launch in 2020.
Travis Willingham is an American voice actor known for his character portrayals in video games and English anime dubs. His notable roles include Roy Mustang in the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, Cleo in Glass Fleet, Ginko in Mushishi, Portgas D. Ace in One Piece, Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka in Ouran High School Host Club, Yu Kanda in D. Gray-man, and Cameron Campbell in Camp Camp.
Liam Christopher O'Brien is an American voice actor, writer, and director. He is a regular cast member of the Dungeons & Dragons actual play series Critical Role, playing Vax'ildan ("Vax"), Caleb Widogast, and Orym. He has been involved in many video games, cartoons, and English-language adaptations of Japanese anime. His major anime roles include Gaara in Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto, Vincent Law in Ergo Proxy, Captain Jushiro Ukitake in Bleach, Lloyd in Code Geass, Kenzo Tenma in Monster, Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3, and Nephrite in the Viz Media dub of Sailor Moon.
Samuel Brent Oscar Riegel, sometimes credited as Jack Lingo, is an American voice actor, director, and writer. He is a regular cast member of the web series Critical Role, in which he and other fellow voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons. He is best known for voice roles as Donatello in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and Phoenix Wright in the Ace Attorney games. For Nickelodeon, he was the voice director for Fresh Beat Band of Spies and Sanjay and Craig, as well as the voice of Riven in the revival of Winx Club.
Taliesin Jaffe is an American voice actor, voice director and screenwriter. He has worked on English-dubbing roles for anime and video games. He is a cast member on Critical Role, a web series in which he plays Dungeons & Dragons with other voice actors. Jaffe has also frequently voiced the Flash in various video games.
Matthew Christopher Miller, better known professionally as Matthew Mercer, is an American voice actor and game designer who has provided voice work for cartoons, animations, video games, and English localizations of Japanese anime.
Geek & Sundry is a commercial YouTube and Twitch channel and multimedia production company. It was launched on April 2, 2012, by actress Felicia Day with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's 100 million dollar original channel initiative. In June 2012, Forbes suggested that "if successful, it could help blaze a trail for the future of network television." In 2014, Geek & Sundry was acquired by Legendary Entertainment. The company is primarily known for their launch of the D&D show Critical Role, which aired on their channels from 2015–19.
Critical Role is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors plays Dungeons & Dragons. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 after 115 episodes, and campaign two started in January 2018 and ended in June 2021 after 141 episodes. A number of one-shots were aired in the hiatus between the two campaigns. After campaign two was completed, the spin-off limited series Exandria Unlimited aired from June 2021 to August 2021. The third campaign premiered on October 21, 2021.
Critical Role Productions, LLC is a multimedia production company incorporated in 2015 by the members of the creator-owned streaming show Critical Role. The first two shows from the company, Critical Role and Talks Machina, originally premiered on Geek & Sundry. The company moved to their own studio space in 2018, and began putting out new shows on their own Twitch and YouTube channels. A split from Legendary Digital Networks was completed in early 2019, at which point Critical Role Productions took over production responsibility and since then has continued to launch new shows independently.
Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins is a comic series, published by Dark Horse Comics, based on the American Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role. The comics act as a prequel story and covers how the characters became the adventuring party known as Vox Machina before the events of the web series. Matthew Colville was the writer on the first volume with Jody Houser becoming the writer on the subsequent three volumes. Olivia Samson was the artist on the first three volumes with Noah Hayes becoming the artist on the fourth volume.
The second campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role premiered on January 11, 2018—four months after the conclusion of the first campaign—and concluded on June 3, 2021. The series starred Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien, and Laura Bailey as the players with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master.
The first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role premiered on March 12, 2015; it consisted of 115 episodes and concluded on October 12, 2017. It followed Vox Machina, a party of seven to eight adventurers, in their travels across the continent of Tal'Dorei. Campaign one broadcast live each Thursday at 19:00 PT on Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel, with the video on demand (VOD) being available to Twitch subscribers immediately after the broadcast. On the Monday following the live stream, the VODs were made available for the public on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel.
Brennan Lee Mulligan is an American comedian, actor, writer, and gamemaster. He has worked with CollegeHumor as a sketch writer and performer, and as gamemaster for their actual play web series, Dimension 20. He also wrote the superhero webcomic Strong Female Protagonist alongside artist Molly Ostertag.
The Legend of Vox Machina is an American adult animated fantasy action television series produced by Metapigeon, Titmouse, Inc., and Amazon Studios, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 28, 2022. The series is based on the first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role. It stars Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, reprising their roles from the campaign.
Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting is a sourcebook that details the continent of Tal'Dorei from the Critical Role campaign setting for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was published by Green Ronin Publishing and released on August 17, 2017; however, it is not considered "official" Dungeons & Dragons material. A revised edition, titled Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, was published by Darrington Press and released on January 18, 2022.
Critical Role, an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons, has spawned many related products, including books, comics and an animated series, which are produced by Critical Role Productions. Various third-party, licensed works have also been released since Critical Role began in 2015.
The third campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role premiered on October 21, 2021; it is set after the conclusion of the second campaign and Exandria Unlimited. The series stars Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, and Sam Riegel as the players with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master. Campaign three airs each Thursday at 7 p.m. PT on Critical Role Productions' Twitch and YouTube channels except for the last Thursday of each month.
Exandria Unlimited (ExU) is an American actual play anthology web series where the cast plays Dungeons & Dragons using the fifth edition ruleset. It is set in the Exandria campaign setting and is a spin-off of the web series Critical Role.
Darrington Press is the tabletop game imprint for Critical Role Productions which launched in October 2020. It is led by Ivan Van Norman with Matthew Mercer as the creative advisor. The publishing label primarily produces board and card games along with role-playing games. It won two ENNIE Awards in 2022 – "Fan Award for Best Publisher" and "Best Setting Gold Award" for Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn.
This product was led by Critical Role creative director and co-founder Marisha Ray, as well as senior producer Maxwell James.
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link)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.