Tara Strong

Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973)[1] is a Canadian-American actress who has provided voice-over work for animation and video games and has performed in live-action. Her roles include animated series such as Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, Teen Titans, Xiaolin Showdown, Ben 10, Chowder, Wow Wow Wubbzy!, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Unikitty!, and DC Super Hero Girls and video games such as Mortal Kombat X, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy X and X-2 and Batman: Arkham. She has earned Annie Award and Daytime Emmy nominations and won an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. She currently voices Ruff, Rocky J. Squirrel and Cindy Bear.

Tara Strong
Strong in 2012
Born
Tara Lyn Charendoff

(1973-02-12) February 12, 1973
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Citizenship
  • Canada
  • United States
OccupationActress
Years active1986–present
Spouse(s)
Craig Strong
(
m. 2000)
[1]
Children2
Parents
  • Syd Charendoff (father)
  • Lucy Charendoff (mother)
RelativesMarla Charendoff (sister)

Early life

Strong was born on February 12, 1973, in Toronto, Ontario, to Syd and Lucy Charendoff. Her family, Jews who lived in Russia, had immigrated to Canada after escaping the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.[2] Tara and her older sister Marla were raised in Toronto. At age four, she became interested in acting and volunteered to be a soloist at a school production.[3] She worked with the Yiddish Theater; though she did not know the Yiddish language, she memorized her lines phonetically. She also performed with the Toronto Jewish Theater (TJA), 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.[3]

Her first professional role was Gracie in Limelight Theater's production of The Music Man at the age of 13.[3] She had a guest role in the action series T. and T. Her first major cartoon role, also at the age of 13, was the title role in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater.[4] She starred in the short-lived CBC Television sitcom Mosquito Lake.[3] She took improv classes at The Second City in Toronto[4] and continued acting in both animated and live-action shows and films, before moving to Los Angeles in January 1994.[5][6]

Acting and voice-over career
Further information: Tara Strong filmography
Tara Strong at Comic-Con San Diego, 2009

Strong is the voice of numerous animated characters, including main roles in Fillmore! as Ingrid Third; The Fairly OddParents as Timmy Turner and Poof; Rugrats and All Grown Up! as Dil Pickles; Hamtaro as Hamtaro The Powerpuff Girls as Bubbles; Ben 10 as Ben Tennyson, Upgrade, Blitzwolfer, and Buzzshock; Chowder as Truffles; Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! as Raven; Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as Terrence; the singing voice of Meg Griffin and additional voices on Family Guy; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as Twilight Sparkle, Unikitty! as Princess Unikitty, Wow Wow Wubbzy! as Daizy, and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz as Joanni.

She has also lent her voice to English-language localizations of Japanese anime such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, as well as several video games, including her work as Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: 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; Talwyn Apogee in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty; Kiera in Jak and Daxter series; Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight, replacing Arleen Sorkin from the franchise; and Juliet Starling, the main character of Lollipop Chainsaw. She also has a minor voiceover for the Teddy Bear; Ted in the motion picture Ted. And she even voiced Krista Sparks in Twisted Metal: Head-On

She has appeared in live roles in National Lampoon's Senior Trip, Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina Down Under, and The Last White Dishwasher. She also made guest appearances on such shows as Forever Knight, Street Legal, Touched by an Angel, Take Home Chef, Party of Five, Comic Book: The Movie, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.[7] In January 2013, she voiced the character Plum in Cartoon Hangover's Bravest Warriors, created by Pendleton Ward. She has the role of the character Miss Collins in Nickelodeon's live-action series Big Time Rush.[8]

In 2004, she won an Interactive Achievement Award for her role as Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2.[9][10] She also served as the announcer for the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, appeared as a guest panelist 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, in which she said, "My son is now old enough to respond to my work. To me, that's what it is all about."[11] Strong has been nominated five times for Annie Awards.[12][13][14][15]

In 2013, Strong won the Shorty Award for "Best #Actress" for her use of social media.[16] The Behind the Voice Actors website selected her for a BTVA Voice Acting Award for Voice Actress of the Year for 2013,[17] and nominated her for the 2011 and 2012 years.[18][19]

Personal life

In 1999, she met Craig Strong, an American former actor turned real estate agent.[20] They were married on May 14, 2000 and have two sons: Sammy (born February 2002) and Aden (born August 2004).[21] Their family resides in Los Angeles, where they run VoiceStarz, an Internet-based company that teaches people how to get into the voice-over business.[22] She has citizenship in both Canada and the United States.[23] Strong and her husband developed and patented a line of baby bottles with caps that their user can set to note the calendar date for breast milk storage.[24][25]

Strong was the roommate of actress Neve Campbell. They both auditioned for the role of Julia in the 1990s TV series Party of Five, and Campbell ultimately won the role.[26] Strong did appear in one episode playing Lorna.[27]

She was involved with a charity group called Bronies for Good where she helped raise funds for a family whose daughter had a brain tumour.[28][29] In 2012, during the BronyCon event in New Jersey, she attended a lunch with fans from the military.[30]

Strong is Jewish[28] and vegan.[31]

In October 2018, Strong posted a #MeToo tweet sharing her experience of being sexually assaulted as a 5-year-old, while also condemning Jeff Flake and Susan Collins as "heartless pricks who abandoned women and America".[32]

gollark: well, that is unhelp™.
gollark: ...
gollark: I'm not sure about that, though, <@!236628809158230018>. I mean, if there was one in the distant parse which then ceased interaction, it would easily have been long enough for it to have been garbled by now.
gollark: ... "faith" or something?
gollark: I'm not denying that *Muslims* consider it a revelation from Allah. I'm just denying that it *is* a revelation from Allah, because no evidence.

References

Citations
  1. Mulman, Doreen. "Stats and Agency Info". TOTS: The Official Tara Strong. MKBMemorial.com. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  2. Strong, Tara [@tarastrong] (January 28, 2017). "My family escaped the Russian Pogroms & went to Canada. Thank you for letting them in!! 🇨🇦❤️" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. Mulman, Doreen. "Early Career". TOTS – The Official Tara Strong. MKBMemorial.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  4. Mulman, Doreen. "FAQ 2008". TOTS: The Official Tara Strong. MKBMemorial.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  5. Stern, Cara (November 4, 2013). "Versatile voice is key to success". Canadian Jewish News. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015.
  6. "About Tara Strong". VoiceStarz. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  7. "Tara Strong official website". Tarastrong.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
  8. Rudoff, Paul. "Ghostbusters Cast & Crew Multimedia". Spook Central. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  9. "2004 Interactive Achievement Awards". Interactive.org. Archived from the original on September 5, 2011.
  10. "2004 Interactive Achievement Awards". IGN. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2004.
  11. Howard, Caroline (July–August 2004). "Work in Progress – Getting It Done – Career, Self, & Soul – This Week's Cover Mom – Tara Strong". Working Mother. Front cover, p. 15. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  12. "39th Annie Awards". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  13. "31st Annie Awards". Annie Awards. February 1, 2014. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  14. "29th Annie Awards". Annie Awards. February 1, 2014. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  15. "27th Annie Awards". Annie Awards. February 1, 2014. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  16. "Shorty Award winners Cassey Ho and Tara Strong on Fox News Live". Shorty Awards Blog. April 11, 2013. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015.
  17. "3rd Annual BTVA Voice Acting Awards 2013 – General". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  18. "2nd Annual BTVA Voice Acting Awards 2012 – General". Behind the Voice Actors. Archived from the original on November 7, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  19. "1st Annual BTVA Voice Acting Awards 2011 – General". Behind the Voice Actors. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  20. "TFW2005 Interviews Transformers Animated Voice Actor Tara Strong". Transformer World 2005. February 22, 2008. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  21. Mulman, Doreen. "Strong Family Photo Album 2004". MKBMemorial.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  22. Strong, Tara. "VoiceStarz Los Angeles Voice-Over class". VoiceStarz.
  23. "Tara Strong Reddit AMA – February 2014". Interviewly. February 2014. Archived from the original on March 26, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  24. Hartman, Butch and Julieann (June 16, 2011). Voice Actress Tara Strong. YouTube. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015.
  25. "Patent US8020507 – Food storage and management system". Google Patents. Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  26. Wilson, Nicole. "10 Little Known Facts About". Answers.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  27. Stower, Caitlin (October 22, 2014). "13 facts you never knew about the iconic 90s show, Party of Five". iVillage. Australia. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015.
  28. Stern, Cara (November 4, 2013). "Versatile voice is key to success". Canadian Jewish News.
  29. Broverman, Aaron (February 15, 2013). "Tara Strong, 'My Little Pony' Voice Actor, Talks Bronies And Evolution Of Twilight Sparkle". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015.
  30. "HORSIN' AROUND: Military 'bronies' love rifles, 'My Little Pony'". Military Times. July 3, 2012. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  31. "Q&A with voice actor Tara Strong". July 26, 2018 – via www.thespec.com.
  32. strong, tara (October 6, 2018). "Dear @SenatorCollins @JeffFlake & the heartless pricks who abandoned women & America this week.Visiting my sister in #Toronto @ my childhood home.First time seeing the room I was sexually assaulted in at the age of 5 since I shared my #MeToo. U have no idea the pain you've causedpic.twitter.com/M51wroCkpZ". @tarastrong. Retrieved June 23, 2019.

Sources
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