Tara Strong: The voice behind some of your favorite animated characters

Tara Strong: The woman of many voices

Canadian-American actress Tara Strong is making an impact in the world of entertainment as she has performed in live-action and lent her voice to animation and video games for more than three decades. She is behind some of the most popular cartoon characters beginning in the 1980s.

Tara was born on February 12, 1973, as the younger daughter of Syd and Lucy Charendoff. The actress says she is proud of her Jewish heritage and has performed with the Toronto Jewish Theater, where she performed in A Night of Stars. As a young girl Strong was featured in an audiotape for "Lay Down Your Arms" with the Habonim Youth Choir, where the lyrics were sung in both Hebrew and English.

Strong began her career as a young teen

Strong's first professional role was in 1987 at age 13 as Gracie in the Limelight Theater production of The Music Man. She had a guest role in the action series T. and T and her first major cartoon role was as Kitty in Hello Kitty's Furry Tales Theater and she was Carly in Maxie's World and Amie in My Pet Monster all in that same year.

Between 1987 and 1988 Stron was the voice of Claire, Carol, Anna, Swift Heart Rabbit, and Rebecca, in the Care Bears, Patty Putty in the Garbage Pail Kids, and various animate characters in Clifford the Big Red Dog. Her roles include animated series such as The Proud Family,(Bee bee and Cee Cee) Kim Possible, The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony, The Fairly OddParents, (Timmy Turner and Poof), and the Teen Titans. She voiced Dill Pickles in both Rugrats and Rugrats all grown up.

Tara Strong: Additional achievements

Strong provided voices for video games such as the Batman: Arkham series, Mortal Kombat X, and Final Fantasy X-2. She has earned nominations from the Daytime Emmy Awards, 5 Annie Awards nominations and she received an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In 2004, she received an Interactive Achievement Award for her portrayal of Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2.

Tara was the announcer for the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards and appeared as a guest panelist at fan conventions including Jacon, BotCon, Comic-Con and International and Anime Overdose. She might not have 1000 voices like the iconic Mel Blanc but Strong is behind hundreds of some of the most popular characters from the late 1980s until now.

Tara Strong additional credits and honors

It takes talent and a special gift to lend your voice to so many varied characters without any one of them sounding exactly like another. The Behind the Voice Actors website nominated strong in 2011 and 2012 for a BTVA Voice Acting Award for Voice Actress of the Year and in 2013 she won the honor.

Tara has also lent her voice to "English-dubbed localizations of Japanese anime" including Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Strong's video game characters include Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: and Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain; Rikku in Final Fantasy X, its sequel Final Fantasy X-2, and Kingdom Hearts II; and Krista Sparks in Twisted Metal: Head-On.

Strong's live-action roles include The Last White Dishwasher, National Lampoon's Senior Trip, Sabrina Goes to Rome, and Sabrina Down Under. She also has made guest appearances on such shows as Forever Knight, Street Legal, The Drew Carey Show, Take Home Chef, Party of Five, Comic Book: The Movie, Touched by an Angel, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, 3rd Rock from the Sun and The Drew Carey Show.

Tara had a recurring role in Nickelodeon's live-action series Big Time Rush as Ms. Collins from 2010 to 2013. She married Craig Strong on May 14, 2000, but the couple is now divorced. They have two sons, Sammy who was born on February 2002, and Aden who was born on August 2004.