Laura Bailey

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 Henrietta in ''Gunslinger Girl'', 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''.

Early life

Bailey was born in Mississippi on May 28, 1981. She has an older sister named Jenny. Her father was in the Air Force, causing the family to move around frequently. They lived in Oklahoma before moving to San Antonio, Texas, and then moved throughout North Texas, all before Bailey was six years old. They eventually settled in Allen, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. She had a passing interest in acting and performed in school plays, but was planning to become a biologist. 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. She attended the theatre program at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, where she participated in productions of the plays ''Suburbia'', ''Through a Glass Onion'', and ''Don't Rock the Jukebox''.

Career

Voice acting

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''. original article Her first major role on ''Dragon Ball Z'' was Kid Trunks, which she portrayed with a raspy voice. 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. She voiced the starring character Marlene Angel in ''Blue Gender'', which was the first project Funimation did outside of the ''Dragon Ball'' world, 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." She later voiced Lust, one of the villains in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'', and Sana Kurata in ''Kodocha''.

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''. 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, 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''.

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. In 2022, Bailey was nominated for Best VA Performance (EN) at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

Live action

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. ''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; the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019 Shorty Awards. 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. 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. 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;'' Bailey reprises her role as Vex. Bailey is also one of the narrators for the audiobook edition of the novel '' Critical Role: Vox Machina – Kith & Kin'' (2021).

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.

Personal life

Bailey has partial Filipino ancestry. She was voice actress Colleen Clinkenbeard's roommate while the two worked at Funimation in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On September 25, 2011, Bailey married voice actor Travis Willingham in Camarillo, California. Having briefly dated when they were younger, they reconnected years later. Both have done voice work together in various projects. They currently live in Los Angeles and have a son born on June 28, 2018.

Filmography

Anime

Animation

Feature films

Direct-to-video and television films

Video games

Audio books

Live-action

Web

Notes

References

Other references

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Laura
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Mississippi
Actual play performers
American actresses of Filipino descent
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American voice directors
American web series actresses
American women television producers
BAFTA winners (people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
The Game Awards winners
Victims of cyberbullying