There are many prolific voice actors, but Jennifer Hale can claim to be the most prolific of them all — and she has the Guinness World Record to prove it. In nearly 35 years of acting and voice-acting, she has amassed over 460 credits, including Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series of videogames — lauded by some as the greatest science-fiction franchise of all-time. She has also contributed to a staggering number of series and films, including voicing Cinderalla in Ralph Breaks the Internet, a 2018 film that grossed over half a billion dollars at the box office. As well as her Guinness World Record for most prolific female voice actor and various awards for Mass Effect, Hale has also won awards for her work on series such as Niko and the Sword of Light. In 2022, she was nominated for the BAFTA Games Award for Best Performer in a Leading Role for voicing Rivet in Ratchet & Clank: Drift Apart.
Born and raised in Canada, Hale got a major breakthrough at the start of her career when she was chosen out of 6,000 other hopefuls to appear in NBC’s popular Santa Barbara soap opera. This helped to precipitate a move to Los Angeles where she followed the career path then typical of young actresses, appearing in popular shows such as Melrose Place. She began to forge a new path in the mid-1990s when she played her first voice role. This led to further work in series such as Iron Man, Mighty Ducks, and Skeleton Warriors. In 1998, she voiced Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid, still regarded as a landmark in gaming history. 25 years on, she remains a vital part of the gaming world — not bad for someone who didn’t actually play a videogame until 2011!
