Kari Wahlgren

Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977)[4][5] is an American voice actress who has provided English-language roles for animated movies, TV series, and video games.

[6][4] She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in FLCL, and would later land major roles in a number of shows and films: Robin Sena in Witch Hunter Robin, Lavie Head in Last Exile, Fuu in Samurai Champloo, Rip van Winkle in Hellsing,[7] Scarlett in Steamboy, Pacifica Casull in the Scrapped Princess, Saya Otonashi in Blood+, Michiru Satomi and Luca in Immortal Grand Prix, Kagami Hiiragi in Lucky Star, Saber in Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel, and Celty Sturluson in the Durarara!!

In American animation, she has provided voices for a number of series including Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Gravity Falls, Fish Hooks, voicing Little Suzy in Phineas and Ferb, Dorothy and Queen Ozma in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, Ben 10, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, Bunnicula, The Fairly OddParents, Bunsen Is a Beast, and the Nickelodeon versions of Winx Club and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jessica and Diane in Rick and Morty, and Baby Scrat in the Disney+ miniseries Ice Age: Scrat Tales, produced by Blue Sky Studios.

[18] Wahlgren lived in Kansas City, Missouri,[19] where she did some radio spots, then moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to work on her acting career.

She depicted her as close to the original dub but with some American interpretation to appeal to the audience,[20] and depending on how she was drawn, she changed her voice range from cartoon and childlike to realistic.

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.

[4][29] In 2004, she voiced a starring role in the animated feature film Steamboy, among actors Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina.

"[35] 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",[36] and takes some time to get used to.

[4] Her first voice-over role in video games was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds where she played Willow Rosenberg.

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".

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!

[47] She landed the role of Tigress in the television adaptation Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (replacing Angelina Jolie); the series premiered in 2011 and has run over four seasons.

[43] She voiced Meg, the starring love interest in the Disney short film Paperman which screened before Wreck-It Ralph in the theaters in 2012.

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.

Wahlgren in 2007
Wahlgren with Wendee Lee at the Lucky Star English dub premiere in Los Angeles, 2008