Lauren McCullough

Female Voiceover Talent

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LaurenMcCulloughVO@gmail.com

History of Voiceover

Women in VO: Cree Summer

History of Voiceover

From California where she was born, to the Red Pheasant Reserve in Sascatchewan, to the dozens upon dozens of roles she’s played on the screen and behind the mic, Cree Summer is an acting powerhouse. Her father was Don Francks, a Canadian actor and musician, and her mother was Lili Clark, an adopted member of the Plains Cree First nations. She has a younger brother named Rainbow Sun Francks, who is a music DJ. Cree and her family traveled and worked around British Columbia for the first few years of her life, until Cree started school in Toronto at age 8. 

Early Life

Cree credits her father with some of her start in the acting business. Don Francks was a voice actor and screen actor in Canada, so she was able to make an early start at age 11 behind the mic with his help. An early major role of hers was the niece of Inspector Gadget, Penny. Her voice was easily recognizable to viewers, so she was cast in many parts throughout the eighties in blockbuster series, like the Care Bears Movie, and Ewoks. 

It wasn’t long before her face became as recognizable as her voice, with the Cosby Show Spin off, A Different World. She played Winnifred “Freddie” Brooks, and was a regular cast member on that show from 1988 until the end of it’s run in 1993. She made guest appearances on other live action shows like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Living Single. While she was on these on camera shows, she also continued working on her voice acting career. The show The Real Ghostbusters made a format change in 1988, increasing it’s on air time from a half hour to an hour, and making it’s content more youthful and humor oriented. Cree voiced the part of Chilly Cooper, the neighborhood ice cream woman, and the love interest of Slimer.

1990s-2000s

Over the next 20 years, Cree voiced over a hundred roles in all kinds of cartoons. She was Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon adventures, a role she later reprised in Pinky, Elmyra, and The Brain. She played Mary Melody, or Pela in WB’s Histeria, Cleo the Poodle in Clifford the Big Red Dog, Suzie Carmichael in Rugrats, Valerie Grey in Danny Phantom, Foxxy Love in Drawn together, Numbuh 5 in Codename: Kids Next Door, Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog,Penelope in Barbie As Rapunzel, octogenarian villain Granny May on WordGirl, Tiff from Nickelodeon’s My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated. he also played a role in “Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated” as Lady Marmalad in the episode The Haunting.

Videogames

She also lent her voice to numerous video game titles. These include Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, BLACK, as well as Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. She voiced Auriel in Diablo 3,[8] and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm. She was also the voice of Tandi in Fallout and First Citizen Lynette in Fallout 2, Tatjana in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, Lady Belgemine, Young Tidus and additional voice-overs in Final Fantasy X, Lenne/Calli in Final Fantasy X-2, Storm in Marvel Super Hero Squad, Cynder in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Magma in X-Men Legends, and the Inca Princess Micay in Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. 

She had a small role in Mass Effect. She also did miscellaneous voices in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. She reprised her voice of She-Hulk in Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet. She also voiced Kit Brinny in the introduction video for the MMORPG Wildstar. She provides the voice of vampire derby girl Roller Brawl in the Skylanders series. She has also voiced Professor Penelope Young, a minor character original in Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Disney

Cree also played Princess ‘Kida’ Kidagarsh in the Disney movie and franchise of Lost Atlantis. She has voiced that this is a favorite role, and shared frustration that Kida is not included in the main line of Disney Princesses. ““I just feel like it’s bullshit. I feel like Kida gets the crap end of the stick, she’s in the back of the bus. She’s just a beautiful representation of powerful womanhood, and being a brown girl. It bums me out because Kida is a princess and she’ll always be a princess. I think there’s something to it too for all of us brown little freaks. I think it makes us push a little more and realize that we still have some fighting to do.”  Kida surely deserves a place in Disney Princess canon alongside all the growing number of Black and Princesses of Color. 

Music

In addition to her other talents, Cree Summer has also performed music most of her life. She joined her first band at the age of 13 and has been using her voice as a part of her career ever since. She sang background vocals for her A Different World castmate, Jasmine Guy’s self titled LP. During the next several years, she had ups and downs with various recording companies, most of the disagreements coming about because the labels thought her music was too political. 

Cree became friends with Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, and Lenny joined her on and also produced a solo album called Street Faerie. She went on tour with Lenny as his opening act, but unfortunately the label dropped her shortly after, and a planned tour stop at Lillith Fair was canceled, although the label continued to promote her album. 

A number of Summer’s portrayed animated characters are singers or sing songs within the soundtrack of a show. The character of Susie in All Grown Up! was portrayed as a singer with real talent, allowing Summer to sing in the role. Summer also sings the opening theme song for All Grown Up!. The character of Foxxy Love in Drawn Together was a singer, Numbuh 5 from Codename: Kids Next Door sang a lullaby. Elmyra Duff sang several times on Tiny Toon Adventures. 

She co-performed lead vocals in the song “Cool Kitty” with friend and frequent co-star Tara Strong, which accompanied a cartoon called Class of 3000, directed and written for Cartoon Network by André 3000. She provided the voice of a recurring pomegranate singer in The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange. Her character Priscilla on Sheriff Callie’s Wild West also sings many times. 

The freedom of Voice Acting

Despite her lengthy list of accomplishments, Cree Summer stays humble, and also has an abiding love for voice acting. This article quotes her as saying, “I love doing both voiceovers and on camera acting, but I really like the freedom I get in voice acting,” she explained. “I really get into a character, and use its traits, age, and even jaw and teeth type to determine how I should do its voice. Another positive aspect of voice overs is the closeness of everyone in the whole community. It’s like being a part of a unique club, where everyone respects one another. It’s not like the music business, or live acting, where certain people will see others as competition. I am blown away and humbled when I walk in the studio and see a woman who can do eight character voices and none of them sound the same! Another reason there’s no uptight attitude about competition is because all of us are silly people and love our job.”

What has been your favorite role voiced by Cree?

Personally, as a 90’s kid, I’m partial to Suzie Carmichael in Rugrats.

What Makes A Spooky Voice or Sound?

History of Voiceover

Have you ever wondered what makes a voice or a sound spooky? What exactly are the elements needed to make something give you that spine-chilling feeling or that haunting memory that sticks with you?

Well it’s that time of year again. As days get colder, depending on where you are in the world, we start looking toward more chilling entertainment. Whether you’re more of a Great Pumpkin aficionado or a lover of all things horror, now is the time to grab a blanket and indulge.

Before we dive into the elements of the soundtracks of your autumnal entertainment, let’s look at some of the voices that have been iconic when we think of October and spookiness. 

Classic Spooky Voices

  • Boris Karloff

Of course, this is where we had to start. Boris’ voice is about as iconic as it comes for that spooky element. Born in 1887, Boris was an English actor, best known for his roles in early horror and thriller movies from the early days of Hollywood, including Frankenstein in 1931, Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, and Son of Frankenstein in 1939. You’ll see a theme there and he wasn’t just in these Frankenstein movies. He played Frankenstein’s monster. Yes, the Frankenstein monster you’re picturing in your mind, with the deep, dark eyes, angular face and broad forehead. That was Boris, with makeup and costumery, of course. But Boris Karloff was Frankenstein’s monster and still is in many ways. So we had to start here.

Boris made a place for himself in the horror genre, going on to play many varied roles in a great number of films, including The Mummy in 1932. But in a rather endearing twist, one of his most notable voice roles was that of the truly villainous, but relatable lovable, Grinch. 

  • Rod Serling

Don’t know that name? Well, you definitely know that voice. Here let me help you. 

“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone.”

Yes, Rod Serling was not only the voice and host of The Twilight Zone, he was the creator of the popular series. After serving in World War II, Rod returned to the United States and began his career in radio, and then in television, in a number of different roles. 

Although it only lasted 5 seasons, The Twilight Zone has become quintessentially the sound for the strange, ethereal, and unexplainable. Disney used the rights for it’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride in Orlando for many years, in which guests could experience stepping into an episode and hearing from Rod himself.

 

  • Vincent Price

You know that name for a reason. In many ways, Vincent Price picked up the horror film from Boris Karloff, becoming the iconic villain for much of the midcentury. Best known for his film, Tower of London, in 1939, with Boris Karloff, Price went on to play so many iconic bad guys for decades. His was the name you saw plastered across a horror or thriller flick poster and knew you were in for a good one. 

But interestingly, although his name is often synonymous with that genre, his work delved into the heroic as well. He played Simon Templar, the leading crime-solving character in The Saint television series from 1947 to 1951. 

And if you’re a big fan of Vincent Price, did you know he was a gourmet cook and hosted a British television show called Cooking Price-Wise? And he wrote a number of cookbooks with his wife, Mary, that are still available for purchase. So if you need to combine your culinary interests with a nod to classic horror films, you know where to look. 

 

  • Bela Lugosi

Born in Hungary, his full name was Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, but you know him better as Count Dracula. Bela started his career in acting in his native Hungary, but emigrated to Germany and the United States to escape political oppression and upheaval. Before launching into his screen career, Bela worked on Broadway in an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He played the lead role, which prepared him for his most famous role.

In 1931, Lugosi played the first on-screen, in-sound role of Count Dracula. His Hungarian accent lends itself to the Dracula voice you can hear in your head, without even needing to watch a video or hear a recording. All other Dracula voice’s are compared to his.

Much like his predecessors, Lugosi went on to start in a number of other horror films, his accent and success in Dracula leading the way. However, he was often typecast and relegated to minor roles, while others got the leads. 

 

  • Margaret Hamilton

Well my little pretties I must include this lady in our list of iconic spooky voices. Margaret is best known for her betrayal of The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

Her legendary cackle and well quoted lines set the bar for all the witches since.

A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. She suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland in which the trap door’s drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit.

 

  • Roger L. Jackson

If you’re a fan of modern horror, thriller, suspense films, you know this voice. Although rarely heard, Jackson brings the voice to Ghostface from the Scream films while on the telephone. His is the modern equivalent of the classic voices that came before him.

Unlike his predecessors though, Jackson’s career has spanned a number of roles, even outside of horror and suspense. He was the narrator for Disney’s The Book of Pooh television series and voiced Mojo Jojo on The Powder Puff Girls. 

And depending on your perspective, his role as Mr. Mucinex for Mucinex commercials was either right on cue, or outside the genre. 

 

What Makes Scary Music Scary?

So how about the sound tracks that accompany those iconic voices? We could spend days on that topic but here are a few elements that come together to give you the chills.

When these elements come together, whether in music or basic background sounds, they evoke chills. We feel something. We feel what the producers want us to feel which is fear, terror, or overall discomfort. 

So what are you watching this chilly, chilling season? Are you a classic horror film type or a modern appreciator? Or are you more of the cartoon variety? We’ve got a lot of those to choose from too, from Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

But we will leave you with a clip from one of our personal favorites, whose title character never voices anything. And yet, he’s unforgettable. 

https://youtu.be/TRGkEDADmRU?t=107