Tara Strong
Tara Strong (with cartoonist C.H. Greenblatt) at San Diego Comic-con, 2009.
Born	Tara Lynn Charendoff February 12, 1973 (1973-02-12) (age 36) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other name(s)	Tara Charendoff
Occupation	Actress, voice actress, singer
Years active	1987–present
Spouse(s)	Craig Strong (May 14, 2000 – present)
Official website

Tara Lynn Charendoff-Strong (born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian American actress, voice-over artist, comedian, musician, singer, and businesswoman, perhaps best known for voice acting in animated films and television.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Toronto, Ontario, to Jewish Canadian parents, Strong's acting career began when she volunteered to be a soloist in the school production at age four. Soon, she began acting in the Yiddish Theater; though she didn't speak the Yiddish language, she memorized her lines phonetically. During this time, she also performed at the Toronto Jewish Theater, where she acted in A Night of Stars, and was featured in an audiotape for "Lay Down Your Arms" with the Habonim Youth Choir, where she sang the lyrics in both English and Hebrew^[1], a feat she repeated on February 10, 2005, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the March of the Living dinner in honor of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, although she didn't actually get the chance to meet him.

At age thirteen, Strong was accepted into a performing arts school, where she landed her first professional role: the role of Gracie in the Limelight Theater's production of The Music Man. That same year, she booked a guest starring role in Mr. T's T. and T.. Afterwards, she landed the title role in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater and starred in the short-lived CBC Television sitcom Mosquito Lake before moving to Los Angeles^[1].

Strong is the voice behind a multitude of North American animated characters, including main roles in The New Batman Adventures as Batgirl; Fillmore! as Ingrid Third; The Rugrats and All Grown Up! as Dil Pickles; The Powerpuff Girls as Bubbles; Ben 10 as Ben Tennyson, Upgrade, Benwolf, and Buzzshock; The Fairly OddParents as Timmy Turner and Poof; Xiaolin Showdown as Omi; Teen Titans as Raven; Drawn Together as Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein; The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World as Hip and Hop Koopa; Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as Terrence; Transformers Animated as Sari Sumdac, Slipstream, Slo-Mo, Strika, Red Alert, Mayor Edsel's press secretary, and additional voices; the singing voice of Meg Griffin and additional voices on Family Guy; and many others.

She has also lent her voice to Japanese anime such as Spirited Away, Sailor Moon, and Princess Mononoke, as well as several video games, including her work as Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey; Rikku in Final Fantasy X, its sequel Final Fantasy X-2, and Kingdom Hearts II; Norma Beatty in Tales of Legendia; and Talwyn Apogee in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (both of which reunite her with her Final Fantasy X/Drawn Together co-star James Arnold Taylor). Numerous sources have stated that she also voiced Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine and went uncredited for the role ^[1][2]. She is currently known for having voice acted in the most cartoons, surpassing Powerpuff Girls co-star Tom Kenny.^[3]

In addition to her vast amount of work as a vocal actress, Strong has had a few roles as a live actress, including major roles in National Lampoon's Senior Trip, Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina, Down Under, Mosquito Lake, and The Last White Dishwasher, and guest roles in Forever Knight, Street Legal, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Touched by an Angel, Take Home Chef, Party of Five, Comic Book: The Movie, and 3rd Rock from the Sun. As a child, she was featured in several live-action productions, but is primarily involved with voice-over work nowadays. However, she has stated that she would be more than happy to do more live action work, but is constantly preoccupied with voice-overs and is thus unable to find the time to do so at the moment.^[4][5] However, it has recently been announced that she is to appear as the character Miss Collins in Nickelodeon's upcoming live action series Big Time Rush.^[1]

Strong has been nominated four times for an Annie Award, and once for a Daytime Emmy. In 2004, she won an Interactive Achievement Award for her role as Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2. She also served as the announcer for the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards, appeared as a guest at several fan conventions (including BotCon, Jacon, Comic-Con International, and Anime Overdose), and was featured on the front cover of the July/August 2004 issue of Working Mother magazine, where she was quoted as saying "My son is now old enough to respond to my work. To me, that's what it's all about." ^[1]

In addition to her acting talents, Strong is highly skilled with performing impersonations and different accents, a highly talented soprano singer, trained in jazz, tap, and ballet dancing, and can play the trumpet and piano.

[edit] Statistics and personal life

Strong is a natural brunette, but dyes her hair blonde.^[2] She is also interested in Kabbalah, having been spotted wearing a symbol of it.^[2]

Strong has stated that her role as Melody in The Little Mermaid II is her favorite role in her entire career (she is a fan of the franchise to the point where she broke down in tears when she met Jodi Benson in person), is most like Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls in terms of personality, enjoys all types of music except heavy metal, and is a fan of Meryl Streep and Kristin Chenoweth^[3]. She also deeply loves watching and working on Drawn Together, believing it fun as it was such a departure from the family-friendly content she was used to working on, and has said that her role as Toot Braunstein is the most fun out of her entire career (they had to repeatedly stop her recording sessions because she would constantly crack up laughing while recording Toot's lines^[6]). Though tolerant of the show's Jewish humour, the only real problems that she had with the content were a few jokes about Anne Frank.^[4]

Strong is Jewish, a vegetarian (having been raised kosher)^[7] and has one sister, Marla. She also takes classes in Cardio Barre to stay fit .^[1] Prior to her marriage, she was originally credited under her maiden name, Tara Charendoff; she changed her professional name to "Tara Strong" at her husband's request, first going under that name with her guest role in Touched by an Angel.^[1] She is frequent co-stars with fellow actress Cree Summer; the two are childhood friends and grew up in Toronto together.^[8] She is also friends/acquaintances with fellow actors Grey DeLisle, Butch Hartman, Jess Harnell, Tom Kenny, Rob Paulsen, Cathy Cavadini, E. G. Daily, Billy West, David Hayter, Melissa Joan Hart, Kevin Michael Richardson, Crispin Freeman, Maurice LaMarche, James Arnold Taylor, Jodi Benson, Richard Steven Horvitz, Samuel E. Wright, John DiMaggio, Hynden Walch, Scott Menville, Daran Norris, Susan Blakeslee, Bumper Robinson, David Kaye, Khary Payton, Ron Perlman, Alex Soto, Meagan Smith, Max Casella, and the late Mary Kay Bergman, all of whom she has worked with.^[1]

She is currently married to American actor Craig Strong, whom she first met at a 1999 fundraiser party hosted by Sharon Stone's sister^[1], and they have two sons; Sammy James Strong (born February 2, 2002), and Aden Joshua Strong (born August 25, 2004). Her career choice does not prevent her from spending time with her children; she frequently brings them to her recording sessions.^[1] She and Craig are the founders of VoiceStarz, Inc., an Internet-based company which teaches people how to get into the voice-over business, of which Craig is the CEO. They currently reside in Encino, California with their two dogs, Abby and Baci.^[1]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Tara Strong at MySpace
• Tara Strong at the Internet Movie Database
• Tara Strong at TV.com