Voice Actor Spotlight: Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale
This week’s VA Spotlight is brought to you by Hamlet, as performed by an all-elcor cast. A riveting 17 straight hours of drama! And also by Canada. Just Canada…
When the galaxy is under threat of annihilation, when all hope seems lost and political turmoil promises to turn races against each other, there are only two names you need to know: Commander Shepard and Commander Shepard.
BioWare’s Mass Effect series has taken the gaming world and turned it on its ear with exciting new innovations in storytelling, gameplay mechanics and moral choices. But it also gives you the option to play through as a male or female Commander Shepard. No big change there, really, as we’ve had choices like that for years. But the amount of voice acting, the different dialogues and sheer number of choices you can make as either Male or Female Shepard is what truly boggles the mind.
But which Shepard is right for you? Whether you prefer to play it as a guy and live out your fantasy of sexing a hot blue alien woman or if you prefer to play it as a woman and live out your fantasy of watching a human woman and a hot blue alien woman get it on, BioWare has you covered… you sad, lonely little person…
Today, we’ll start with Female Commander Sheppard, as she’s taken a backseat to MaleShep in all of Mass Effect’s marketing and advertising campaigns. Ladies first, I always say.
Jennifer Hale
As the voice of FemShep, Jennifer Hale brings an air of sexy power to the world of Mass Effect. Born January 30th, 1972, Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American actress, voice actress and singer. While born in Canada to parents hailing from Alabama, Jennifer attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. She got her first big break in 1988 in a made for TV movie, A Father’s Homecoming, and has been primarily voicing video games, cartoons and anime ever since.
Hale has quite a long list of credits, even if you narrow it down to just the voice acting gigs, and further just to the video game voices. While Female Shepard may be her most notable role, many of you may recognize some of her other work as well: Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Metal Gear Solid 2 as Emma Emmerich, Metroid Prime Trilogy as Samus Aran, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as Bastila Shan, the Metal Gear Solid Series as Dr. Naomi Hunter, Kingdom Hearts as Cinderella and Aurora and Bulletstorm as Trishka Novak. This is a mere fraction of her list…
Branching out from gaming, Hale is also the go-to girl for animated movies and TV shows, especially as Cinderella. You can also hear her in shows like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ben 10, Samurai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls, Legion of Superheros and as the magical Zatanna from pretty much any DC animated feature. My personal favorite animated voice that she’s performed is that of Electra from Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.
Mark Meer
Lending his voice to the ever-popular MaleShep, we have Mark Meer. Also born in Canada, Mark is an accomplished actor, improv artist and standup comedian. Not at all what I expected when researching Commander Shepard’s male voice actor. Meer is part of the live, improvised comedy soap opera, Die-Nasty, and also lends his comedic talents to Rapid Fire Theatre, Gordon’s Big Bald Head, The Irrelevant Show and CAUTION: May Contain Nuts. Impressively, he was the first person to ever complete the 50+ hour Die-Nasty Improvathon in London…without sleeping.
In the world of video games, Mark is no stranger to Canadian-based BioWare and their fantastic role playing experiences. He seems to lend his voice only to BioWare titles when it comes to video games and has been credited in Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, the Dragon Age series and of course, all three Mass Effect titles.
When he’s not voicing the epic characters of BioWare’s creation, Mark is acting in multiple short productions. He was nominated for a Sterling Award for his co-writing of the show Lobster Telephone ad actually won a Sterling for Outstanding Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role in the production, Helen’s Necklace.
Be sure to catch Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer next year in BioWare’s final entry in the Mass Effect trilogy. And if you’d like to learn more about either Commander Shepard, be sure to check out their IMDB and Wikipedia pages!
