Cristina Vee

Cristina Danielle Valenzuela (born July 11, 1987), known professionally as Cristina Vee, or Cristina "Vee" Valenzuela, is an American voice actress. She provides voices for English dubs of anime, animation, and video games.

Early life and education

Vee was born on July 11, 1987. She is of Tepehuan, Spanish, and Lebanese descent. She grew up in Norwalk, CA, near Los Angeles and attended public schools there. One of her early interests was music, and Cristina participated in the Norwalk All City band while in middle school and high school. Due to her passion for acting and animation specifically, her classmates called her "Sailor Moon girl," and Vee would go on to co-found the first anime club at John Glenn High School.

Cristina studied theatre arts and graduated from California State University at Long Beach in 2007 where she took classes with Professor Hugh O'Gorman, who supported her career goals. Vee has disclosed that she struggled with her poor mental health at some point in college: “Even though I loved studying theater and performing in shows, college was a really hard time for me. Because of depression and panic attacks, there were a couple of years where it was extremely hard for me to go to classes.”

Career

Anime

When Vee was younger, she wanted to become an animator, but after watching ''Sailor Moon'', she was inspired to become a voice actor. She had attended Anime Expo multiple times as a fan and participated in their AX Idol voice-over contest. In 2004, she joined a voice-over panel where she helped work some of the equipment and then got a card from Wendee Lee to audition for several shows with Bang Zoom! Entertainment, including '' Samurai Champloo''. Her first major role was Kanaria in ''Rozen Maiden''. In 2008, she voiced the title character in '' Aika R-16: Virgin Mission'', Louise in '' The Familiar of Zero'', and Nanoha in '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha''. She portrayed the live-action Haruhi Suzumiya in the promotional videos for the second '' The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' series, and performed as her at various events.

In 2011, she voiced the shy bassist Mio Akiyama in the school music comedy ''K-On!'' and Nagisa Saitō in the comedy ''Squid Girl''. That year, she starred in the anime feature film '' Tekken: Blood Vengeance'' as Alisa Bosconovitch, attending American anime conventions with the Japanese writer Dai Satō to promote the film. In 2012, she voiced Homura Akemi in ''Puella Magi Madoka Magica''. In 2013, she voiced Princess Yo in '' Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan'' and Red Hood in the ''Ikki Tousen'' series. In 2014, she voiced Morgiana in '' Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic'' and the Honoka sisters in '' Knights of Sidonia''. She was chosen to voice Sailor Mars in Viz's re-dub of ''Sailor Moon'' and the new '' Sailor Moon Crystal'' series. Vee described her voicing of Rei as different in ''Crystal'' because her character is more serious and regal compared to her character in the original series.

In 2015, she voiced Noel Vermillion in ''BlazBlue Alter Memory'', Compa in '' Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation'', and Hawk in '' The Seven Deadly Sins'', the last of which was released as a Netflix original series. In 2016, she provided the voice of Killua Zoldyck in the Viz Media English dub of the 2011 anime adaptation of ''Hunter × Hunter''. In 2021, she voiced Vivy in the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub of the original anime series '' Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song''.

Animation projects

Vee has been involved in several animation projects. In March 2012, she started a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to produce an animated music video in conjunction with Cybergraphix Animation and Studio APPP. The main character of the video, "Cristina Veecaloid", was designed by ''Skullgirls'' creative director Alex Ahad, Her character was later named Milky and was made into an iOS game called ''Veecaloid Pop'' released in 2015. In 2012, Vee was involved in voice casting and directing the ''Skullgirls'' video game and web series. The game was nominated at the 40th Annie Awards. In 2015, Vee began voicing Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug in the English dub of the animated series '' Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.'' The show premiered on Nickelodeon in December 2015, and has aired five seasons and 3 specials on Netflix and now Disney+ and Disney Channel. Executive producer Jared Wolfsen said that Vee and the other English dub voice actors brought a lot of energy to their characters, and that Vee herself is just like Ladybug – sweet and kind, and so fun to watch. In 2021 and 2024, Vee voiced Verosika Mayday in the animated web series ''Helluva Boss'', starring in the episodes " Spring Broken", Ozzie's" and " Apology Tour".

In June 2023, it was announced that she would voice Tere and Toñita in the animated series ''Primos'', which premiered in July 2024 on Disney Channel.

Video games, hosting, and other projects

Vee has been involved in voice-overs for video games, mostly with English localizations of Japanese titles produced by Atlus USA and NIS America. Some of her major roles are Noel Vermillion in '' BlazBlue'', Velvet Crowe in '' Tales of Berseria'', Riven the Exile in ''League of Legends'', Four in ''Drakengard 3'', Compa in '' Hyperdimension Neptunia'', 13-Amp and 5-Volt in the '' WarioWare series'', Marnie in '' Pokémon Masters EX'', the title character of the '' Shantae'' series and her arch-nemesis Risky Boots, as well as Bennett and Xingqiu in ''Genshin Impact''. She has directed and produced the voices for the video game '' Indivisible'', which was crowdfunded with a total amount of $1.5 million on December 2, 2015.

In addition to performing live as Haruhi Suzumiya, Vee has appeared on screen on various web series, television shows and events. She was a host on ''Anime TV'' where she reviewed shows and interviewed people, and appeared on Funimation On Demand and Crunchyroll. She was a live-action host of IGN's IPL4 and IPL5 ''League of Legends'' video game tournaments in Las Vegas. She is a frequent guest at many anime conventions throughout the United States and worldwide.Convention appearances can be found at::
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Convention writeups from local newspapers include:
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Music

Vee is also a professional singer, and has performed the theme songs for two '' Shantae'' video games: "Dance Through the Danger" for 2016's '' Shantae: Half-Genie Hero'' and "Rise and Shine Shantae" for 2019's '' Shantae and the Seven Sirens''. She also performed the theme song "Until I'm Broken" for the 2012 visual novel '' Loren the Amazon Princess''. She performed multiple songs for the mobile gacha game '' Arknights'': "Boiling Blood" in 2019, "ALIVE" in 2021 and "Spark for Dream" in 2022. In 2023, she sang the English dub ending theme for '' Digimon Adventure:'', "KUYASHISAWA TANE".

Vee has uploaded several renditions of anime songs on YouTube. In 2015, she released an EP called ''Menagerie'' with DJ Bouche which was part of the Viewster's Omakase subscription service. She and YouTuber Nathan Sharp (NateWantsToBattle) released a cover of Charlie Puth's song "Attention" in August 2017. She also signed with an indie record label called Give Heart Records. She also recorded a cover of The Living Tombstone's song "Animal" with the 8-Bit Big Band in an arrangement by Charlie Rosen. In April 2024, Vee released a cover of "Whatever It Takes" from the Prime Video animated series ''Hazbin Hotel'' (set in the same fictional universe as ''Helluva Boss''), featuring content creator, cosplayer and voice actress Sofia Gomez and musician Tre Watson.

Personal life

Vee lives in the Los Angeles area.Residence tweets:
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* In January 2018, she and musician/voice actor Nathan Sharp announced their engagement, but Sharp later announced in August that the two had separated.

In February 2024, she deactivated her Twitter account due to online harassment after she was falsely accused of being a Zionist.

Filmography

References

External links

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Cristina Valenzuela
at Crystal Acids Voice Actor Database
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vee, Cristina
1987 births
Living people
Actresses from Long Beach, California
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actual play performers
American film actresses
American people of Indigenous Mexican descent
American people of Lebanese descent
American people of Spanish descent
American actresses of Mexican descent
American television actresses
American television hosts
American television writers
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American voice directors
Animal impersonators
Audiobook narrators
American web series actresses
American women singers
American women television hosts
American women television writers
California State University, Long Beach alumni
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
People from Norwalk, California
Pixar people
Writers from Los Angeles
21st-century American actresses