Kari Wahlgren is an American actress who has provided English language voices for over
a hundred cartoons, anime and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as
Haruko Haruhara in FLCL, and would later land major roles in a number of series: Robin Sena
in Witch Hunter Robin; Lavie in Last Exile; Scarlett in Steamboy; Pacifica Casull, the
Scrapped Princess; Saya Otonashi in Blood+; Kagami Hiiragi in Lucky Star; and Saber in
Fate/zero. In animation, she has provided voices for a number of productions including
Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Fish Hooks, Phineas & Ferb, Ben 10, Kung Fu Panda:
Legends of Awesomeness, Winx Club and Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. In video games,
she voiced lead characters Ashe in Final Fantasy XII and Shelke in Dirge of Cerberus – Final
Fantasy VII.
Career Wahlgren was born and raised in Hoisington,
Kansas. She was inspired as a child by the Disney Princesses and other voices in animation.
Her parents were teachers, which encouraged her to support charities and organizations
that promote reading and education later in her career. On her eleventh birthday, when
she and her family were in California and toured the building for Focus on the Family,
she was asked to do a bit role in their radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, as an eleven-year-old
character named Gloria McCoy. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor
of Arts in Theater in 1999. She lived in Kansas City, Missouri where she did some radio spots,
then moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to work on her acting career. In an interview in Lawrence
Journal-World, she said that she was not getting much on-camera work, so she shifted her energies
towards voice-over work, and that her experience with dialogue and Shakespeare classes helped
a lot towards landing roles that involved various characters, some of which had accents
or were from certain time periods. Her debut anime role was Haruko Haruhara in
a six-episode OVA series called FLCL. In an interview with Anime Tourist, she said that
Haruko was the only character she got to audition for. She depicted her as close to the original
dub but with some American interpretation to appeal to the audience, and depending on
how she was drawn, she changed her voice range from cartoon and child-like to realistic.
In a later review of the series, Bryce Coulter of Mania.com was impressed by her character
work: "she definitely gives Haruko that twenty-something, sarcastic and almost punkish persona." Wahlgren's
next major anime dub role was in Witch Hunter Robin, where she played the title character
Robin Sena, a soft-spoken girl who joins a group of witch hunters, but harbors some magic
abilities of her own. Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network said she was "pleasant, subtle
and perfect for the role" and wished the supporting voice cast would demonstrate such subtleties.
She voiced lead character Lavie Head in the steampunk fantasy series Last Exile. Allen
Divers of Anime News Network grouped her with the "better known names of the California
voice-acting scene". She voiced title character Sakura Kinomoto in Bang Zoom!'s dubbing of
Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card of which Divers wrote that the voice actors
did a great job of matching the emotions of the original Japanese voices, including Sakura's
trademark expression "Hoe!", something that was missing in previous English adaptations.
In live-action works, she starred as Tinkerbell in an indie Peter Pan film rendition called
Neverland, released in 2003. Her character was described as a "sullen sidekick" and "drugged-out".
In 2004, she voiced a starring role in the animated feature film Steamboy, among actors
Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina. She played Scarlett, a teenage granddaughter
of the corporation's chairman, described as spoiled and cruel, and generally annoying.
Peter Sanderson of IGN called Scarlett one of the most obnoxious characters he has ever
encountered, and hardly stands up to her movie equivalent. She voiced Chika Minazuki in Ai
Yori Aoshi, a little cousin character. Way Jeng of Mania.com described her performance
as energetic, yet innocent and simple, but contrasting to Wendee Lee's voicing of Tina
Foster. In 2005, she voiced the female lead character Fuu Kasumi in Samurai Champloo.
Carlo Santos of Anime News Network thought the characters sounded "well-suited to their
personalities", but was concerned that Fuu "falls into the habit of sounding like every
other ditzy anime girl out there." In Scrapped Princess, she voices the title character Pacifica
Casull, who is hunted down because of a prophecy where she would cause the destruction of the
world if she lives to see her 16th birthday. Theron Martin called her acting of "Pacifica's
brattiness and deep sensitivity solidly pegged", although it is different from her Japanese
counterpart as it "lacks some of the poutiness", and takes some time to get used to.
In addition to her work in voicing anime, Wahlgren has been involved in a number of
video games. Her first voice-over role in video games was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Chaos Bleeds where she played Willow Rosenberg. In the James Bond video game From Russia with
Love, released in 2005, she voiced a Bond girl that was paired with Sean Connery's original
voice.In 2006, she landed leading roles of Ashe in Final Fantasy XII and Shelkie in Dirge
of Cerberus – Final Fantasy VII. In an interview conducted by UFFSite and RPGSite, she recounts
how she received notice of the roles on two consecutive days, and said that the franchise
was like "the holy grail of video game acting". She portrayed Ashe with a bit of a regal tone,
after the director encouraged her to do so following a class where she was doing Shakespeare.
She describes her character as someone a girl would look up to as "intelligent, diplomatic,
and can kick ass and look good doing it". In contrast, Shelkie was desired to be portrayed
as very cold and emotionless, which she describes as "cold, but sympathetic." In 2007, she voiced
the playable title character in the strategy-RPG Jeanne d'Arc.
Wahlgren’s involvement in animation voice-over took off in 2004 when she was cast in a lead
role in the Disney/Jetix ensemble action superhero show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
where she voiced Nova. The show ran for four seasons from 2004 to 2006. She would also
pick up recurring villain roles such as Samantha Paine aka Magness in A.T.O.M. and Charmcaster
in Ben 10, the latter of which would return in the show's sequels and related video games.
In 2007, she voiced Tak's friend Jeera in Nickelodeon's computer-graphics animated series
Tak and the Power of Juju. She voiced little sister character Suzy Johnson in Disney’s
hit series Phineas and Ferb, and participated in the second season of the animated comedy
Lil' Bush where she voiced Lil' Hillary and Lil' Condi. She became a regular cast member
for Fish Hooks, which premiered in 2010, where she voiced Shellsea and many supporting and
guest characters. She landed the role of Tigress in the television adaptation Kung Fu Panda:
Legends of Awesomeness; the series premiered in 2011 and has run over four seasons. In
2012, she had the lead role of Allie Underhill in the action series Kaijudo, which spanned
52 episodes, and picked up roles in other cartoon shows such as Gravity Falls, Randy
Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, and Winx Club. She voiced Meg, the starring love interest
in the Disney short film Paperman which screened before Wreck-It Ralph in the theaters in 2012.
In an interview with her school's alumni association, she said that she was asked to do the role
because of her previous involvements in Bolt and Tangled. Recording for the film took about
30 minutes, mostly of vocal sounds. The short went on to win an Academy Award for Best Animated
Short Film. Some of her work has garnered recognition,
awards and nominations from websites that review anime and animation. Mania.com wrote
that Wahlgren’s performance as the straight-man character Kagami Hiiragi in Lucky Star was
absolute sarcastic perfection, and named her the Best Overlooked Actress for 2008 in their
annual Anime Dubbies Awards. Theron Martin liked Celty Sturluson, a headless dullahan
character in Durarara!! who uses mostly body language and typed words. In his year-end
awards for 2011, he selected Wahlgren the Best English Dub Performance – Female. On
the Behind the Voice Actors website, she was selected by the staff as the Voice Actress
of the Year in 2012, and was nominated for 2011 and 2013. She received nominations in
other categories: Best Female Lead Vocal Performer in an Anime Title for Celty in Durarara!!
in 2011, Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in a Television Series – Action / Drama
for Allie Underhill in Kaijudo in 2012, Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in a Television
Series – Comedy / Musical for Tigress in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness in 2012,
Best Female Lead Vocal Performance in an Anime Television Series/OVA for Saber in Fate/zero,
Best Female Supporting Vocal Performance in an Anime Movie/Special for Karina Lyle/Blue
Rose in Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning in 2013, Best Female Vocal Performance in a Television
Series in a Guest Role – Action/Drama for Letta Turmond in Star Wars: The Clone Wars
and Best Female Vocal Performance in a Video Game in a Supporting Role for Courtney Collins
in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Filmography
Live action Anime
Animation Feature films
Direct-to-video and television films Video games
Other appearances Swiffer TV commercial – Mud Girl for Swiffer
WetJet Tabletop web series – Herself
Adventures in Voice Acting – Herself Discography
Adventures in Odyssey radio drama – Gloria McCoy and Maria
Notes
References
Sidman, Ray. "Portrait of a Voiceover Actress [interview]". Comics Buyer's Guide: 36–38.
Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland. ISBN 9780786486410.
External links Official website
Kari Wahlgren on Twitter Kari Wahlgren at the Internet Movie Database
Kari Wahlgren at Anime News Network's encyclopedia Kari Wahlgren convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
Kari Wahlgren at CrystalAcids Anime Voice Actor Database
G4TV "Will Work for Games" Interview with Kari Wahlgren
Kari Wahlgren Interview at voiceacting.co.uk