Jennifer Hale facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jennifer Hale
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Hale in March 2024
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| Born |
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
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| Other names | Carren Learning |
| Occupation | Voice actress |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Children | 1 |
Jennifer Hale is a talented voice actress from Canada. She is super famous for lending her voice to characters in many popular video games. You might know her work from games like Mass Effect, Halo, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In 2013, she even earned a spot in Guinness World Records. She was recognized as the most active voice actor in video games!
Jennifer Hale also voices characters in awesome animated shows. These include The Powerpuff Girls, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She is also the voice of Thorn from the Hex Girls in Scooby-Doo movies. Plus, she voices classic Disney Princess characters like Cinderella and Princess Aurora. More recently, she voices Jean Grey in the X-Men '97 series.
For her role as Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, Jennifer Hale was nominated for several awards. She also received nominations for her amazing performance as Rivet in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Contents
Early Life and Voice Beginnings
Jennifer Hale was born in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Canada. Her biological father was an outdoorsman and a respected elder. Jennifer is a member of NunatuKavut, an Inuit group. She moved to the United States as a child. She grew up mostly in Alabama.
When she was a teenager, Jennifer got her first voice-over job. It was at a local radio station. She earned $35 just for talking! In 1982, she graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She studied theater there. She was also interested in being in a rock band. She said that voice-over work helped her pay for life. It eventually became her main career. While in high school, she did more voice-over work for commercials. She also worked as a production assistant. She went to Birmingham–Southern College. She realized she liked film acting more than theater. She graduated with a business degree. She started acting and continued her voice-over work. She often traveled between Birmingham and Atlanta.
Jennifer Hale's Amazing Career
Jennifer Hale's first big acting role was in 1988. It was for a TV movie called A Father's Homecoming. She was also chosen for the Santa Barbara soap opera. She moved to Los Angeles after doing more local work. There, she got guest roles on shows like Melrose Place and ER.
Her first major voice role in cartoons was as Ivy. This was for Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. The show was based on a popular computer game. Since it was her first cartoon, she took extra classes. The show lasted for many seasons. Jennifer enjoyed the project a lot. She noted it was one of the first network cartoons that was also educational. Her next cartoon was Skeleton Warriors. She said it was fun because they "blew stuff up" every week.
Voice Acting in Video Games
The Carmen Sandiego TV show also led to a video game. This gave Jennifer Hale her first chance to voice characters in a game. She found it a bit confusing at first. It needed many more lines than the TV show. Her next big video game work was with BioWare. She voiced different characters in the Baldur's Gate series. This led to even bigger roles in games like Mass Effect.
Jennifer Hale is known as the "voice" of Samus Aran. She provides the grunts and screams for Samus in the Metroid Prime games. She also voices several characters in the Metal Gear Solid series. These include Naomi Hunter and Emma Emmerich.
She voiced Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. She also returned for the sequel. Later, she voiced the female version of Jaden Korr in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. In the online game Star Wars: The Old Republic, she voices the Republic Trooper Female. She also voices Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan.
Jennifer Hale also voiced Jean Grey in Wolverine and the X-Men. She was also the voice of British mercenary Jennifer Mui. This was for the Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction games. In 2011, she voiced Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She also voiced Leah in Diablo III. She played Rosalind Lutece in BioShock Infinite. Jennifer Hale also voiced Krem in Dragon Age: Inquisition. She was also Kronika, the final boss in Mortal Kombat 11.
Commander Shepard and Other Roles
Jennifer Hale was chosen to voice Commander Shepard. This is the main character in the Mass Effect series. She has said she loves helping to "create" video game stories. Even though she is not a gamer herself! She was nominated for "Best Performance by a Human Female" for her role as Shepard. This happened at the 2010 and 2012 Spike Video Game Awards.
Jennifer Hale also voices Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in Spider-Man. This was the first of many Marvel Comics characters she has voiced. She plays Cinderella and Princess Aurora in many Disney projects. She also voices Dory from Finding Nemo at Disney parks. She fills in for Ellen DeGeneres for this role. In 2003, Hale voiced Mrs. Little in the Stuart Little TV series.
She provides the voices for lead character Sam and rival character Mandy. These are from the animated TV series Totally Spies!. She voiced these characters for six seasons and a movie. In February 2023, she guest voiced Riyo Chuchi. This was for the show Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
New Ventures
In 2021, Jennifer Hale started two new businesses. These are called Skills Hub and The Haven. Skills Hub is a coaching program. It helps people who want to become voice actors. It has many experienced voice actors and casting directors. They teach how to get into the voice acting industry.
The Haven was a self-help group. Jennifer Hale led it through Patreon. It had monthly online calls and advice from her. The group is currently paused due to her other commitments.
Personal Life
Jennifer Hale used to live in the Los Angeles area. But since 2020, she has moved back to Canada. She now lives on Vancouver Island. She continues to record voices from her home studio. She has one son. She also has several pets. She loves being outdoors. She once said she might have become an architect. This is because she enjoys redoing houses.
She has mentioned that she was not allowed to watch cartoons as a child. She had not played any video games until 2011. That's when she played Mass Effect for the first time! She loves horses. She has helped rescue horses from wildfires.
Filmography
