Jennifer Hale

Early life Hale was born in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Hale herself is a member of NunatuKavut, and self-identifies as being of partial southern Labrador Inuit descent. She would later call for support to free her father, who had advanced cancer, after he was imprisoned for refusing to sign an injunction to stay away from Muskrat Falls in 2017. Hale has a paternal half-sister, Carren Dujela, who works at the University of Victoria. She moved to the U.S. as a child and grew up in Alabama, mainly in Birmingham and Montgomery.

Career

Hale's first big break in acting was in 1988 for the made-for-television movie A Father's Homecoming, She has been involved in many other cartoons. In 1994, she was cast as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the first in a long line of Marvel Comics characters she has voiced. She plays Cinderella and Princess Aurora in various Disney projects, as well as voicing Dory from Finding Nemo throughout the Disney parks, filling in for Ellen DeGeneres. In 2003, Hale voiced Mrs. Little in the short-lived Stuart Little TV series.

Hale has provided the voice of lead character Sam and rival character Mandy in the French animated television series Totally Spies!. In a 2004 interview, she said "I'm so happy that David Michel (creator and producer), Jamie Simone (voice director) and everyone gave me the opportunity to be part of the show, it's been one of my absolute favorite experiences." She describes Sam as "smart and adventurous, but now you see more of her wacky side and her girly side as well," and Mandy as a "total snot, which is fun too." She voiced the two characters as well as others for the show's six seasons and its feature movie. Hale is also known for playing several voices in the Metal Gear Solid series (Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Emma Emmerich in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty). She also provided the voice for Kronika, the final boss of Mortal Kombat 11.

Hale was selected to voice Commander Shepard, the main player character in the Mass Effect series. She had said that she is very invested in helping to "create" the stories of video games, though she herself is not a gamer. Although Hale does object to certain lines if they seem out-of-character in other works, she prefers not to mess with the words for Shepard and BioWare. (32% in Mass Effect Legendary Edition) vocal support for her character was high, leading to the fan-driven nickname "FemShep" She was nominated for "Best Performance by a Human Female" at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, in 2012, she was nominated again for Mass Effect 3.

In February 2023, Hale guest voiced Riyo Chuchi, a Pantoran member of the Imperial Senate, in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

In 2021, Hale branched out from voice acting by founding two new businesses, Skills Hub and The Haven. Skills Hub is a coaching program for aspiring voice actors. Featuring 89 coaches including experienced voice actors and casting directors, Skills Hub teaches prospective voice actors skills on how to enter and navigate the VO/VA industry.

The Haven was a self help group led by Hale, run through Patreon. It featured monthly zoom calls and advice from Hale herself. The group was indefinitely paused as of June 2024 due to other commitments making scheduling difficult.

Influences and reception

In an interview with The Geek Forge regarding her influences, Hale cited voice actors such as Dee Bradley Baker, Grey DeLisle, Phil LaMarr, Tress MacNeille, Kath Soucie, Frank Welker, and April Winchell, with emphasis on LaMarr. She also admires the work of actors Judi Dench, Edward James Olmos, and Mary McDonnell.

Personal life Hale lived in the Los Angeles area, but since 2020, she has relocated back to Canada and now resides on Vancouver Island where she continues to do voice recordings from her personal home studio. She has a son. and had not played any video games until her 2011 interview with Tom Bissell for The New Yorker, in which she played Mass Effect for the first time.

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