Taliesin Jaffe ( ) is an American voice actor, voice director, and screenwriter. He has worked on English-

dubbing Dubbing (also known as re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and the video production process where supplementary recordings (known as doubles) are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production audio to cr ...

roles for anime and video games. He is a cast member on ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 aft ...

'', a web series in which he plays ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' with other voice actors. Jaffe has also frequently voiced

the Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

in various video games.

Personal life

Jaffe was born in Los Angeles, the son of actress

Nina Axelrod Nina Kether Axelrod (born July 28, 1955) is an American actress who appeared in films and television mainly during the late 1970s through the early 1980s. Since the early 1990s, she has worked as a casting director on films and taught drama in sc ...

and film producer Robert Jaffe. His maternal grandfather was screenwriter

George Axelrod George Axelrod (June 9, 1922 – June 21, 2003) was an American screenwriter and producer. His play '' The Seven Year Itch'' (1952), was adapted into a film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe. Axelrod was nominated for an Academy Award ...

, while his paternal grandfather was film producer Herb Jaffe. He has two brothers and a sister. Jaffe came out as

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

in 2017.

Career

Life and voice acting

Jaffe began his career as a child actor, appearing in films such as '' Mr. Mom'' and '' 2010: The Year We Make Contact'', and had membership of the Screen Actor's Guild at the age of seven months. On television, he had guest appearances on such series as '' The Facts of Life'' and ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...

''. In 1985, Jaffe was a regular on the short-lived ABC sitcom ''

Hail to the Chief "Hail to the Chief" is a piece originally announcing arrival by boat at an island in a Scottish loch, but today it is best known as the personal anthem of the president of the United States, adapted by James Sanderson from an original Scottis ...

'' as Willy Mansfield, son of the fictional first female president of the United States, who was played by

Patty Duke Anna Marie Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016), known professionally as Patty Duke, was an American actress. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ...

. From 1987 to 1989, Jaffe played Kenny Granger on '' She's the Sheriff'', co-starring with

Suzanne Somers Suzanne Marie Somers (; October 16, 1946 – October 15, 2023) was an American actress, author, and businesswoman. She played the television roles of Chrissy Snow on ''Three's Company'' (1977–1981) and Carol Foster Lambert on '' Step by Step' ...

. In a 2018 interview, Jaffe discussed how he was offered the role of Brian Tanner on '' ALF'', but indicated that his parents turned it down. After several years, Jaffe did not enjoy being a child actor. After a bad audition, his father told him he could either put in more effort for more roles or quit acting, and not previously realized that quitting was an chose to quit. Jaffe was a member of an AV club at school and his friends and he would create their own English dubs of anime using the club's equipment. After high school, Jaffe made a demonstration tape using his dubbing work, which led to his career in anime dubbing and voice direction.

Critical Role Productions

In the

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gam ...

web series ''

'', he played Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III in Campaign One, Mollymauk Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay, and Kingsley Tealeaf in Campaign Two, and Ashton Greymoore in 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 Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

; the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner in the "Games" category at the 2019

Shorty Awards The Shorty Awards (also known as "The Shortys") are awards for outstanding and innovative work in digital and social media content by brands, advertising agencies, and creators. The awards, which generally focus on short-term content, honor achiev ...

. The show was originally broadcast on the

Geek & Sundry Geek & Sundry, Inc. is a commercial YouTube and Twitch (service), 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 YouTube Original Chan ...

network until early 2019, when the cast and crew left to set up their own production company,

Critical Role Productions Critical Role Productions, LLC is a multimedia production company incorporated in 2015 by the members of the creator-owned streaming show ''Critical Role''. The company's first two shows, ''Critical Role'' and ''Talks Machina'', originally premie ...

. Soon after, they aimed to raise $750,000 on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. In November 2019,

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

acquired the streaming rights to the animated series '' The Legend of Vox Machina''; Jaffe reprised his role as Percy. In May 2023,

Darrington Press Darrington Press is the tabletop game imprint for Critical Role Productions which launched in October 2020. Jeremy Crawford is the Game Director and Chris Perkins is the Creative Director, with Matthew Mercer as the creative advisor. The publ ...

imprint announced the upcoming Candela Obscura campaign setting co-created by Jaffe and Chris Lockey for the ''Illuminated Worlds'' tabletop role-playing game system. The ''Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide'' was released on May 25 with the ''Candela Obscura Core Rulebook'' scheduled for release later in 2023. The release of the ''Quickstart Guide'' corresponds with the release of the new monthly horror–themed actual play web series titled ''Candela Obscura'' created by Critical Role Productions; Jaffe serves as the show's Lightkeeper who provides the characters their mission each episode.

Acting credits

:''The lists in this section are purposely incomplete and mention only his most notable roles or projects.''

Anime

Animation

Live-action

Video games

Audio books

Production credits

Voice director

Anime

Video games

Screenwriter

References

External links

* *
Taliesin Jaffe
at the CrystalAcids Anime Voice Actor Database * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Taliesin 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors Actual play performers American bisexual male actors American bisexual writers American LGBTQ screenwriters American male child actors American male screenwriters American male television writers American male video game actors American male voice actors Television writers from California American voice directors Bisexual male writers Bisexual screenwriters LGBTQ people from California Living people Male actors from Los Angeles Year of birth missing (living people)