Laura Bailey

Beginnings

Born Laura Dawn Bailey on May 28th, 1981 in Mississippi, Laura broke into voice acting when attending Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas. She started working in a show called "No One Sees the Video" at a local theatre. Working in the show with her was Kent Williams, who played Dr. Gero and various other characters on Dragon Ball Z. One day, Kent asked Laura if she wanted to do some voice work for Dragon Ball Z, as they had some female roles coming up but not a lot of female voice actors, as this was when FUNimation was still a fairly new company. Laura went in and auditioned and got the part of Kid Trunks. She also went on to voice other characters on the show.

Games

A big fan and player of video games herself, Laura enjoys being able to voice roles in them whenever she can. Her favorite genre is RPGs, though she generally doesn't play through the ones she has roles in as she already knows the story and what to do.

Roles she is most notable for in relation to video games include Serah in Final Fantasy XIII, Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4, Rayne from BloodRayne, and Lust from the Fullmetal Alchemist series. She voices the titular character of Catherine, the first game developed by Atlus for the PS3/Xbox 360.

Games she is a fan of include:

• Fable II
• The Final Fantasy series (specifically Final Fantasy X)
• Halo 3
• Mass Effect
• Tekken

Street Fighter IV - Chun-Li

When auditioning for the role of Chun-Li, the actors weren't allowed to be told what game they were doing it for. As Laura recounts it, the person in charge of the auditions said, "So I can't tell you what the game is, and I can't tell you what your character's name is that your auditioning for, but here's her character design," and he handed the picture of Chun-Li across the table. As she puts it, "I absolutely flipped out! And apparently I was the only girl that came into audition that day that knew that it was Chun-Li when he shows the picture." She also had to listen to a bunch of Chinese and repeat it for Chun-Li's various moves, which was tricky.

Being Recognized Online

As a voice actor for video games, it can be tricky when you want to play a game online yourself and chat with your fellow players. Laura made the mistake of telling some fellow guildmates in EverQuest II who she was. Describing the situation at Kawaii-Kon 2009, Laura said, "I got a lot of free stuff, which was cool, but then you're playing and people don't let you just go on a quest anymore, you know what I mean?" She had to stop playing the game afterwards. A similar situation happened with Mila Kunis and World of Warcraft, in which her voice was recognized while using Ventrilo.

Personal Life

Laura is married to fellow prolific voice artist Travis Willingham.