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Lani Minella

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Lani Minella
Born
Lani Jean Minella

(1950-07-28) July 28, 1950 (age 74)
San Diego, California
Alma materSan Diego State University
Occupation(s)Voice actress, voice director, producer
Years active1992–present
Notable creditsNancy Drew in Nancy Drew video games
Websitelaniminella.com

Lani Minella (born July 28, 1950)[1][2] is an American actress, director, and producer mostly working in the gaming industry. She is also the founder and owner of the voice-acting agency, AudioGodz.[3]

Career

After college, Lani started on Morning Drive radio for an alternative station in the late 80s, but after being heard of her celebrity impersonations, she was called and referred to GTE Interactive Media to imitate voices from the movie FernGully: The Last Rainforest, which was being pitched for a LaserDisc presentation to Magnavox and Philips.[4] She was then referred by the company to their to CD-Roms division where she worked on more voices and assisted script writing on games for children.[5] Minella asked the company if they're others doing similar work and suggested that she should go to trade shows, which led her to attend showcases like Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Game Developers Conference in San Jose, and Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, where she tried to set up her business card but failed to get any offers, which led her to start her own acting agency AudioGodz, a production company specializing in all aspects of voiceovers from talent to casting, directing, writing and production in 1992.[6]

In 1996, Minella worked on a major first-person shooter video game, Duke Nukem 3D, as voice director and actress, providing the voice most of the female characters in the series. Lani helped cast the voice actor of Duke Nukem, Jon St. John. She met Jon when she was cast as the voice for a commercial he was producing in San Diego. After being impressed by her voices, Jon imitated the voices back at Lani and asked if he ever done voice acting for video games, she shortly got him a telephone interview with the game's creator, George Broussard, and eventually got the part as Duke.[7]

Lani's first major voice role in a video game was for Her Interactive's adventure-mystery series Nancy Drew, starring as the titular character Nancy Drew, debuting with 1998's Secrets Can Kill. Lani reprised her role as Nancy Drew in 31 other video games, with her last being Sea of Darkness in 2015, the decision was made by the CEO due to the dwindled popularity of the series and decided to find a voice actress who is local in the Seattle area, as Lani lives in San Diego.[8]

Since starting her career and becoming well-known for her unique 4-octave vocal range,[9] Lani has provided voices for many voices for other characters in a variety of video games, which includes Rouge the Bat in Sonic Adventure 2, Ivy Valentine from the Soulcalibur series, Lucas from the Super Smash Bros. (series), various characters in The Land Before Time games, Luke in Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Sindel and Sheeva in the 2011 Mortal Kombat, and Mia in Fire Emblem Heroes.

Personal life

Minella is half Italian.[10] In her spare time, she does vocal coaching, gardening, and taking care of her rescue pets when she's home.[11]

Filmography

Animation

List of voice performances in animation
Year Title Role Crew role, notes Source[12]
2002 Burn-Up Excess Maya Jingu, others English vocal cast Resume
2003 Geneshaft Dolce Saito, Chacha, others English dub Resume
2006 Justice League Unlimited Mayor of Central City Episode: "Flash and Substance" Resume
2007 All Grown Up! Kid, Old Woman Episode: "TF + KP Resume
2012 The Cleveland Show Hispanic Woman Episode: "Flush of Genius" [9]

Video games

List of voice performances in video games
Year Title Role Crew role, notes Source[12]
1997–2002 The Land Before Time games Voice Talent / Voices Voice actor [13]
1997 Bubsy 3D Voice Talent Voice actor [13]
1998 Rocky & Bullwinkle's Know-It-All Quiz Game Sherman [13]
1998–2015 Nancy Drew games Nancy Drew, various characters [13]
1999 Snowboard Kids 2 Slash Kamei, Damien, Wendy Rain [13]
1999 Evil Zone Alty Lazel, Midori Himeno, Ihadurca [13]
1999 Duke Nukem: Zero Hour Female Commander Voice actor [13]
1999 Blue Stinger Janine King Voice actor and director [13]
1999 Tail Concerto Waffle Ryebread, Panta [13]
2000 Evil Dead: Hail to the King Anne Knowby, Grammy, Deadites [13]
2001 Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Malah, Ancients [13]
2001–2004 Sonic the Hedgehog games Omochao, Rouge the Bat, Void Voice actor and director [13]
2001 AirBlade Kat Voice actor and director [13]
2001 Frogger: The Great Quest Various characters [13]
2005–present Soulcalibur games Ivy Valentine Voice actor [13]
2007–present Fire Emblem games Mia (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn onward), Micaiah (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn only), Mist (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn only) Voice actor [13]
2008 Professor Layton and the Curious Village Luke [13]
2009 Borderlands Steele [13]
2010 Darksiders Silitha, Tiamat [13]
2010 Amnesia: The Dark Descent Girl, Mother Voice director [13]
2011 Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution Hive Mind [13]
2011 Mortal Kombat Sindel, Sheeva [14]
2013 Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm Slivan [13]
2013 The Last of Us Various characters Voice actor [13]
2014 Strider Nang Pooh, Xi Mang Wu, Female broadcaster [13]
2017 Remothered: Tormented Fathers Gloria Alien Illman as Red Nun [12]
2018 Subnautica Sea Emperor [13]
2018 War for the Overworld: The Under Games Overlord Lamash [15]
2018 God of War Pesta Tweet[16]

References

  1. ^ Minella, Lani (October 26, 2015). "Lani Minella's 58th Birthday Tribute". Facebook. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Minella, Lani. "Lani Minella Biography". IMDb. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  3. ^ Gnatek, Tim (November 4, 2004). "Giving Voice to Video Games". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  4. ^ Sweeney, John (November 2, 2015). "Performance Matters: Interview with Veteran Voice Actress Lani Minella". SuperNerdLand. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  5. ^ AKA Knuckles Echidna, Josh (April 2, 2001). "Lani Minella interview". Sonic Retro. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  6. ^ Shirgley, Chris (July 30, 2015). "Immortal Darkness Interview: Lani Minella, Voice Actor". Immortal Darkness. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  7. ^ Dominguez, James (August 27, 2014). "Duke Nukem speaks: how a radio station director became one of gaming's most iconic voices". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  8. ^ "Interview with Lani Minella". Phoenix Star. January 23, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  9. ^ a b "Lani Minella - Videogame Voices". NandrewForever YouTube channel. June 28, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2017. Cite error: The named reference "YouTube" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Interview with Lani Minella: face to face with Ms. Gloria". Remothered.com. April 11, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  11. ^ "About". thewhitvault.com. 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  12. ^ a b c "Lani Minella's Credits" (PDF). Lani Minella. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y "Behind the Voice Actors". Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  14. ^ Minella, Lani [@LaniMinella] (March 17, 2015). "@Isti91 No I was in Mortal Kombat 9 as Sindel and Sheeva. Never contacted about X." (Tweet). Retrieved February 28, 2018 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Minella, Lani [@LaniMinella] (April 18, 2018). "Meet Underlord Lamash - War for the Overworld: The Under Games youtu.be/ynZnkgCwnXQ via @YouTube 2 days until release. Check it out. I play other characters too. Fantastic company and people to work with!!!" (Tweet). Retrieved April 25, 2018 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Minella, Lani [@LaniMinella] (April 20, 2018). "God of War – Story Trailer | PS4 youtu.be/K0u_kAWLJOA via @YouTube Out today! Lucky to play a norse witch (Pesta). Check it out. Thank you Sony!" (Tweet). Retrieved April 25, 2018 – via Twitter.
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