Cristina Vee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cristina Valenzuela
Vee in 2022
Born
Cristina Danielle Valenzuela

(1987-07-11) July 11, 1987 (age 36)
Other namesCristina Vee
Alma materCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Occupations
  • Voice actress
  • voice director
Years active2005–present
Websitewww.cristinavee.com Edit this at Wikidata

Cristina Danielle Valenzuela[1][dead link] (born July 11, 1987), known by her stage name Cristina Vee, is an American voice actress and voice director. She provides voices for English dubs of anime, animation, and video games.

Vee's roles in anime include Louise in The Familiar of Zero, Nanoha Takamachi in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series, Mio Akiyama in K-On!, Noel Vermillion in BlazBlue Alter Memory, Nagisa Saitō in Squid Girl, Homura Akemi in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Compa and Croire in Hyperdimension Neptunia, Rei Hino / Sailor Mars in the Viz Media dub of Sailor Moon, the Honoka sisters in Knights of Sidonia, Hawk from The Seven Deadly Sins, Darkness in Konosuba, Thoma in The Promised Neverland, Meiko Mochizuki in Digimon Adventure tri., Killua Zoldyck in Hunter × Hunter, Yuko Tani in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater, Vivy in Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, Robyn Hill in RWBY, and Sakura Matou in Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel and Fate/Zero.

Vee has also voiced video game roles, such as the titular character and her arch-nemesis Risky Boots in the Shantae series, Velvet Crowe in Tales of Berseria, Riven in League of Legends, Bennett and Xingqiu in Genshin Impact, 5-Volt in the WarioWare series, and Cerebella in Skullgirls. She is the voice of the Rito warrior Tulin in the English version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. She also plays a minor role as the voice of Vibrio in the game Vitamin Connection. In animation, she voices Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug in the English dub of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. She was the co-host of AnimeTV with Johnny Yong Bosch[2] and portrayed Haruhi Suzumiya in the live-action The Adventures of the ASOS Brigade. She also voices Verosika Mayday in the web series Helluva Boss and Fwench Fwy in Chikn Nuggit.[3]

Early life and education[edit]

Vee, who is Mexican of Tepehuan origin, Spanish, and Lebanese was born on July 11, 1987.[4][5][dead link][6] She grew up in Norwalk, CA, near Los Angeles and attended public schools there.[7] One of her early interests was music, and Cristina participated in the Norwalk All City band while in middle school and high school.[7] But because of her passion for acting and animation specifically, her classmates called her "Sailor Moon girl," and Vee would go on to co-found the first anime club at John Glenn High School.[7]

Cristina studied theatre arts and graduated from California State University at Long Beach in 2007 where she took classes with Professor Hugh O'Gorman, who supported her career goals.[7][8][9] Vee has disclosed that she struggled for a period while in college: “Even though I loved studying theater and performing in shows, college was a really hard time for me. Because of depression and panic attacks, there were a couple of years where it was extremely hard for me to go to classes.”[7]

Career[edit]

Anime[edit]

When Vee was younger, she wanted to become an animator, but after watching Sailor Moon, she was inspired to go into voice acting.[10] She had attended Anime Expo multiple times as a fan and participated in their AX Idol voice-over contest. In 2004, she joined a voice-over panel where she helped work some of the equipment and then got a card from Wendee Lee to audition for several shows with Bang Zoom! Entertainment,[11][12] including Samurai Champloo. Her first major role was Kanaria in Rozen Maiden.[12] In 2008, she voiced the title character in Aika R-16: Virgin Mission, Louise in The Familiar of Zero,[13][14] and Nanoha in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. She portrayed the live-action Haruhi Suzumiya in the promotional videos for the second The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series, and performed as her at various events.[15]

Vee at ColossalCon 2012

In 2011, she voiced the shy bassist Mio Akiyama in the school music comedy K-On! and Nagisa Saitō in the comedy Squid Girl.[16] That year, she starred in the anime feature film Tekken: Blood Vengeance as Alisa Bosconovitch, attending American anime conventions with the Japanese writer Dai Satō to promote the film.[17] In 2012, she voiced Homura Akemi in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.[18] In 2013, she voiced Princess Yo in Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and Red Hood in the Ikki Tousen series.[19][20] In 2014, she voiced Morgiana in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and the Honoka sisters in Knights of Sidonia.[21][22][23][24] She was chosen to voice Sailor Mars in Viz's re-dub of Sailor Moon and the new Sailor Moon Crystal series.[25] Vee described her voicing of Rei as different in Crystal because her character is more serious and regal compared to her character in the original series.[26]

In 2015, she voiced Noel Vermillion in BlazBlue Alter Memory, Compa in Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation, and Hawk in The Seven Deadly Sins, the last of which was released as a Netflix original series.[27][28][29][30] In 2016, she provided the voice of Killua Zoldyck in the Viz Media English dub of the 2011 anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter.[31][32] In 2021, she voiced Vivy in the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub of the original anime series Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song.[33]

Animation projects[edit]

Vee has been involved in several animation projects. In March 2012, she started a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to produce an animated music video in conjunction with Cybergraphix Animation and Studio APPP.[34] The main character of the video, "Cristina Veecaloid", was designed by Skullgirls creative director Alex Ahad,[34] Her character was later named Milky and was made into an iOS game called Veecaloid Pop released in 2015.[35][36] In 2012, Vee was involved in voice casting and directing the Skullgirls video game and web series. The game was nominated at the 40th Annie Awards.[37] In 2015, Vee landed the English voice role of title character Marinette Dupain-Cheng (aka Ladybug) in the CGI animated series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. The show premiered on Nickelodeon in December 2015,[38][39] and has aired four seasons on Netflix and now Disney+ & Disney Channel. Executive producer Jared Wolfsen said that Vee and the other English dub voice actors brought a lot of energy to their characters, and that Vee herself is just like Ladybug – sweet and kind, and so fun to watch.[40] In February 2021, Vee voiced Verosika Mayday in the web series Helluva Boss, starring in the episodes "Spring Broken", “Truth Seekers”, and "Ozzie's".

In 2023, it was announced that she would voice Tere and Tonita in Primos.[41]

Video games, hosting, and other projects[edit]

Vee has been involved in voice-overs for video games, mostly with English localizations of Japanese titles produced by Atlus USA and NIS America. Some of her major roles are Noel Vermillion in BlazBlue, Velvet Crowe in Tales of Berseria, Riven the Exile in League of Legends, Four in Drakengard 3, Compa in Hyperdimension Neptunia, 13-Amp and 5-Volt in WarioWare Gold, Marnie in Pokémon Masters EX, the title character of the Shantae series[22][42] and her arch-nemesis Risky Boots, as well as Bennett and Xingqiu in Genshin Impact. She has directed and produced the voices for the video game Indivisible, which was crowdfunded with a total amount of $1.5 million on December 2, 2015.[43][44]

In addition to performing live as Haruhi Suzumiya, Vee has appeared on screen on various web series, television shows and events. She was a host on Anime TV where she reviewed shows and interviewed people, and appeared on Funimation On Demand and Crunchyroll.[2][45][46] She was a live-action host of IGN's IPL4 and IPL5 League of Legends video game tournaments in Las Vegas.[10][47][48] She is a frequent guest at many anime conventions throughout the United States and worldwide.[49]

Music[edit]

Vee is also a professional singer, and has performed the theme songs for two Shantae video games: "Dance Through the Danger" for 2016's Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and "Rise and Shine Shantae" for 2019's Shantae and the Seven Sirens.[50][51] She also performed the theme song "Until I'm Broken" for the 2012 visual novel Loren the Amazon Princess.[52] She performed multiple songs for the mobile gacha game Arknights: "Boiling Blood"[53] in 2019, "ALIVE"[54] in 2021 and "Spark for Dream"[55] in 2022. In 2023, she sang the English dub ending theme for Digimon Adventure:, "KUYASHISAWA TANE".[56][dead link]

Vee has uploaded several renditions of anime songs on YouTube.[12] In 2015, she released an EP called Menagerie with DJ Bouche which was part of the Viewster's Omakase subscription service.[57][58] She and YouTuber Nathan Sharp (NateWantsToBattle) released a cover of Charlie Puth's song "Attention" in August 2017.[59] She also signed with an indie record label called Give Heart Records.[60] She also recorded The Living Tombstone's song "Animal" with 'The 8-Bit Big Band' in an arrangement by Charlie Rosen.

Personal life[edit]

Vee lives in the Los Angeles area.[61][dead link] In January 2018, she and musician/voice actor Nathan Sharp announced their engagement,[62][dead link] but Sharp later announced in August that the two had separated.[63]

As of January 2022, she is engaged to epidemiologist Michael Espero.[64][dead link]

Filmography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Vee, Cristina [@CristinaVee] (May 3, 2020). "-my first job was a skipper on the Jungle Cruise (I was 17)
    -I missed my last day of college to begin directing Skullgirls
    -my middle name is Danielle
    -I played drums for years
    -I taught myself how to play flute and read treble clef just so I could play Zelda ocarina music"
    (Tweet). Retrieved June 12, 2020 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b "AnimeTV hosted by Revision3". Revision3. 2010. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  3. ^ @chikn_nuggit (January 22, 2021). "NEW FWIEND!! Meet Fwench Fwy the dragon! Voiced by the incredible @CristinaVee !! 🍟🐉💕 #TikTok #animation" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ @cristinavox (October 12, 2020). "Happy #indigenouspeoplesday!". Retrieved November 5, 2023 – via Instagram.
  5. ^ Vee, Cristina [@CristinaVee] (July 11, 2013). "I woke up to the sound of rain on my birthday, I couldn't have received a better gift :)" (Tweet). Retrieved March 18, 2017 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "Pacific Media Expo - Domestic Voice Actor: Cristina Vee". Pacific Media Expo. 2009. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e "The power of the voice". Daily Forty-Niner. October 2, 2022. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  8. ^ "News - Theatre Arts - California State University, Long Beach". California State University at Long Beach. Alumni News section, Class of 2007. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017. Christina Vee (Velenzuela) is the voice of the Ladybug on Nickelodeon's Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
  9. ^ "Welcome to Backstage at the Beach !". Backstage at the Beach. Alumni news section. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017 – via Weebly. Christina Vee (Velenzuela) ('07) - Voice of the Ladybug on Nickelodeon's Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
  10. ^ a b "League of Legends - Cristina Vee Interview". IGN. May 18, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  11. ^ SirensSoul. "US - Joie de Vivre LIFESTYLE". SirenSchool.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  12. ^ a b c Ki (July 27, 2009). Cristina Vee Interview. The Ki Anime Report. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2015 – via YouTube.
  13. ^ Kimlinger, Carl (January 10, 2009). "The Familiar of Zero". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 19, 2015. Of the English leads, Cristina Valenzuela is the more fortunate, as Louise has Eiji Usatsuka's blindingly cute design to fall back on. Valenzuela also has the good sense to tone down Louise's wilder swings, creating a slightly more mature variation on the character.
  14. ^ Bruno, Travis (April 22, 2014). "The Familiar of Zero: Season 1 Review – Capsule Computers". Capsule Computers. Australia. Retrieved March 29, 2017. Only Louise, performed by Cristina Valenzuela is passable while every other character, including Saito's voice actor Jonathan Meza is terrible.
  15. ^ Ohanesian, Liz (June 28, 2010). "The Fandom of Haruhi Suzumiya". Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  16. ^ Sherman, Jennifer (September 10, 2011). "Squid Girl's English Cast Revealed by Media Blasters (Updated)". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  17. ^ "Comic-Con International: A VIP Look at the Upcoming Entries in Na". Comic-con2011.sched.org. July 23, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  18. ^ Ohanesian, Liz (October 22, 2012). "How Puella Magi Madoka Magica Shatters Anime Stereotypes". LA Weekly. Retrieved November 19, 2015. Christina Vee, the voice of intriguing transfer student Homura Akemi in the dub, says that her character is the most "complex" she has played yet and that kind of character depth is prevalent throughout the show.
  19. ^ Ressler, Karen (April 4, 2013). "Neon Alley Reveals Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Demon Capital Dub Cast". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  20. ^ Lee, Michelle (October 11, 2013). "English Cast Announcement – Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians". Funimation Blog.
  21. ^ "Cristina Vee Animethon Convention". Animethon. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  22. ^ a b "Cristina Vee Sac-Anime Convention". Sac-Anime. Archived from the original on June 27, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  23. ^ "Capture that VA! – 03 Cristina Vee (Morgiana)". Magi The Kingdom of Magic official English website. November 1, 2013. Archived from the original on December 13, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
  24. ^ "Netflix Announces 'Knights of Sidonia' Second Anime Season". The Fandom Post. June 4, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  25. ^ "New Sailor Moon Dub Cast Revealed at Anime Expo". Anime News Network. July 5, 2014.
  26. ^ Ferris, Amanda (July 17, 2015). "'Sailor Moon Crystal' News: Will Usagi Defeat Wiseman? Show In Danger Of Being Cancelled". Fashion & Style. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  27. ^ Lee, Michelle (March 16, 2015). "BlazBlue Alter Memory Cast Announcement". Funimation Blog. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  28. ^ Martin, Theron (June 24, 2015). "Review – Hyperdimension Neptunia [Limited Edition] –BD + DVD". Anime News Network. Curiously, Bang Zoom! Entertainment regulars Christine Marie Cabanos (as Nepgear) and Cristina Vee (as Compa) are make appearances in the cast.
  29. ^ Lee, Michelle (March 6, 2015). "Hyperdimension Neptunia Cast and Release Date". Funimation Blog. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  30. ^ Martin, Theron (November 20, 2015). "The Seven Deadly Sins". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 7, 2016. Highlight performancess include Cristina Vee as the pig Hawk, Ben Diskin (Sai in Naruto Shippūden, Death Gun in Sword Art Online 2) as Ban, and Max Mittelman (Inaho in Aldnoah.Zero) as King, but really, even down to bit performances one would be hard-pressed to find even a mediocre delivery.
  31. ^ "Viz Announces 2011-2014 Hunter x Hunter's English Dub Cast (Updated)". Anime News Network. March 19, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  32. ^ "'Hunter X Hunter' Gets English Dub Premiere on Toonami". animationmagazine.net. April 15, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  33. ^ Friedman, Nicholas (May 27, 2021). "Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- English Dub Announced, Cast & Crew Revealed". Funimation Blog. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
  34. ^ a b Saabedra, Humberto (March 6, 2012). "Voice Actress Cristina Vee Launches Kickstarter for Animated Music Video". Crunchyroll. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  35. ^ "Voice Actress Cristina Vee's Mascot Makes Game Debut with Veecaloid Pop". Anime News Network. June 11, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  36. ^ "Voice Actress Cristina Vee Launches Her First Ever Game, Veecaloid Pop, for iOS". Anime News Network (Press release). June 12, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  37. ^ "Annie Awards Nominees". annieawards.org. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  38. ^ Lloyd, Robert (August 27, 2016). "'Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir,' a French turn on teenage superheroes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  39. ^ Anders, Ella (July 2, 2015). "Part Magical Girl, Part Superhero; Ladybug Arrives State-Side in Fall". BSCkids. Retrieved March 6, 2016. I recall seeing someone say that it is Sailor Moon meets Kim Possible. Considering both series are extremely well-done that is a great thing to hear and shows the great potential this series has. Moreover it is a fair enough stamen. More so when the voice of Mariette, Christina Vee, is also that of Sailor Mars in the new Viz Media dub of the classic anime.
  40. ^ Kitsune, Krystal (December 24, 2015). "INTERVIEW WITH: Miraculous Ladybug executive producer, Jared Wolfson". The Kitsune Network. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  41. ^ Dar, Taimar (June 13, 2023). "Disney unveils details and theme song for PRIMOS cartoon". ComicsBeat. Archived from the original on June 13, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  42. ^ "Cristina Vee is voicing Shantae in Pirate's Curse". Nintendo Everything. July 3, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  43. ^ IndivisibleRPG (December 6, 2016). "Indivisible Full VO Stretch Goal: A Word From Cristina Vee". Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2017 – via YouTube.
  44. ^ Strom, Steven (December 2, 2015). "Skullgirls Dev's Indivisible Reaches Its $1.5 Million Crowdfunding Goal". IGN. Archived from the original on December 5, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  45. ^ "Cristina Vee's Resume". CristinaVee.com. Archived from the original on December 5, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  46. ^ Crunchyroll PS3 App Demo with Cristina Vee. September 5, 2012. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2016 – via YouTube.
  47. ^ CyberSportsNetwork (April 10, 2012). Cristina Vee at IPL4. Cyber Sports Network. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2016 – via YouTube.
  48. ^ GameSpot. Watch Christina Vee chats about IPL 5, cosplay contest, and more. Interviewed by Travis Gafford. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
  49. ^ Convention appearances can be found at:: Convention writeups from local newspapers include:
  50. ^ McClusky, Kevin (December 17, 2016). "Review: Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero". Destructoid. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  51. ^ Moyse, Chris (July 5, 2019). "Check out Shantae 5's wild opening anime right here". Destructoid. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  52. ^ "Until I'm Broken - Single". iTunes. May 3, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
  53. ^ Arknights EP - [Boiling Blood], retrieved September 24, 2023
  54. ^ Arknights EP - [ALIVE], retrieved September 24, 2023
  55. ^ Arknights EP - [Spark For Dream], retrieved September 24, 2023
  56. ^ Vee, Cristina [@CristinaVee] (April 14, 2023). "We've come a long way from posting covers on YouTube 🥺❤️" (Tweet). Retrieved May 9, 2023 – via Twitter.
  57. ^ Simons, Roxy (October 25, 2015). "Viewster Announces Omakase Subscription Service". mymbuzz.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  58. ^ "Viewster to Stream Meine Liebe, Saint Beast Anime". animenewsnetwork.com. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  59. ^ "Watch Nathan Sharp Put a Fresh Twist on Charlie Puth's 'Attention': Premiere". fuse.tv. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  60. ^ Records, Give Heart (October 27, 2017). "We're excited to announce that @CristinaVee will be joining the #GiveHeart family! Get ready for some rad music from her!". Twitter. @GiveHeartRecs. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  61. ^ Residence tweets:
    * Vee, Cristina [@cristinavee] (August 29, 2012). "I'm moving out soon! Goodbye Norwalk, hello Eagle Rock! I'll be auctioning off some of my figures to help with the expense" (Tweet). Retrieved November 19, 2015 – via Twitter.
    [dead link]* Vee, Cristina [@cristinavee] (October 3, 2012). "I am now a citizen of Eagle Rock!" (Tweet). Retrieved November 19, 2015 – via Twitter.
  62. ^ Vee, Cristina [@CristinaVee] (January 7, 2018). "Nathan and I are so excited to announce that we are engaged Thank you guys for your support! I'm so incredibly happy!" (Tweet). Retrieved January 7, 2018 – via Twitter.
  63. ^ Sharp, Nathan [@natewantstobtl] (August 19, 2018). "Hey everybody. This is hard to post, but Cristina and I will be going our separate ways. ..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  64. ^ Valenzuela, Cristina [@CristinaVee] (January 14, 2022). "Yes, with all my heart, yes" (Tweet). Retrieved January 15, 2022 – via Twitter.

External links[edit]

Preceded by Voice of Sailor Mars
2014-present
Succeeded by
Incumbent