Tara Strong

Tara Lyn Charendoff-Strong (born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian American actress, voice-over artist, comedienne, musician, singer, and businesswoman, perhaps best known for her extensive voice acting in animated films and television.

Early life and career
Tara Lyn Charendoff was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, to Jewish Canadian parents Syd and Lucy Charendoff, both of her parents ran a convenience/toy/candy store called The Wiz. Strong's acting career began when she volunteered to be a soloist in the school production at age four. Soon, she began acting in the Yiddish Theater; though she didn't speak the Yiddish language, she memorized her lines phonetically. During this time, she also performed at the Toronto Jewish Theater, where she acted in A Night of Stars, and was featured in an audiotape for "Lay Down Your Arms" with the Habonim Youth Choir, where she sang the lyrics in both English and Hebrew, a feat she repeated on February 10, 2005, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the March of the Living dinner in honor of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At age thirteen, Strong was accepted into a performing arts school, where she landed her first professional role: the role of Gracie in the Limelight Theater's production of The Music Man. That same year, she booked a guest starring role in Mr. T's T. and T. Afterwards, she landed the title role in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater and starred in the short-lived CBC Television sitcom Mosquito Lake before moving to Los Angeles in the midst of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Strong is the voice behind a multitude of North American animated characters, including main roles in The New Batman Adventures as Batgirl; Fillmore! as Ingrid Third; Rugrats and All Grown Up! as Dil Pickles; The Powerpuff Girls as Bubbles; Ben 10 as Ben Tennyson, Upgrade, Benwolf, and Buzzshock; The Fairly OddParents as Timmy Turner and Poof; Xiaolin Showdown as Omi; Teen Titans as Raven; Drawn Together as Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein; The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World as Hip/Lemmy and Hop/Iggy Koopa; Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as Terrence; Transformers Animated as Sari Sumdac, Slipstream, Slo-Mo, Strika, Red Alert, Mayor Edsel's press secretary, and additional voices; Sym-Bionic Titan as Ilana Lunas; Chowder as Truffles, the singing voice of Meg Griffin and additional voices on Family Guy; and currently voices Betty Boop in commercials with Tress MacNeille.

She has also lent her voice to Japanese anime such as Spirited Away, Sailor Moon, Shaman King, and Princess Mononoke, as well as several video games, including her work as Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker; Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey; Rikku in Final Fantasy X, its sequel Final Fantasy X-2, and Kingdom Hearts II; Norma Beatty in Tales of Legendia; and Talwyn Apogee in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (both of which reunite her with her Final Fantasy X/Drawn Together co-star James Arnold Taylor). Numerous sources have stated that she also voiced Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine and went uncredited for the role. She is currently known for having voice acted in the most cartoons, surpassing voice actor Tom Kenny.

She has appeared in live roles in National Lampoon's Senior Trip, Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina, Down Under, Mosquito Lake, and The Last White Dishwasher. She also made guest appearances on such shows as Forever Knight, Street Legal, Touched by an Angel, Take Home Chef, Party of Five, Comic Book: The Movie, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, and 3rd Rock from the Sun. She appears as the character Miss Collins in Nickelodeon's live action series Big Time Rush. Strong has been nominated four times for an Annie Award, and once for a Daytime Emmy.

In 2004, she won an Interactive Achievement Award for her role as Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2. She also served as the announcer for the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards, appeared as a guest at several fan conventions (including BotCon, Jacon, Comic-Con International, and Anime Overdose), and was featured on the front cover of the July/August 2004 issue of Working Mother magazine, where she was quoted as saying "My son is now old enough to respond to my work. To me, that's what it's all about."

Personal life
Strong is Jewish, a vegetarian (having been raised kosher) and has one sister, Marla Charendoff (born October 18, 1971). Strong's parents ran a candy/toy store business when Tara and Marla were growing up. Their mother Lucy died in 2004. Tara went to Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, class of 1991, after leaving high school she studied at The Second City in Toronto for two years before moving to Los Angeles in January 1994, Strong and actress Neve Campbell lived together when they both moved to Los Angeles at the same time, they have known each other since high school, they both auditioned for the same role in the hit 90s TV series Party of Five but the role of Julia was given to Neve but Tara started in a few episodes as Lorna. Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite films are The Wizard of Oz and Defending Your Life. Her favorite books are The Joy Luck Club, Like Water for Chocolate and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (favorite childhood book), she loves anything by Lewis Carroll and Amy Tan. She a huge fan of Judy Garland, in a 1998 interview with Hollywood.com she quoted "I would have liked to talk to Judy Garland in her prime. The Wizard of Oz is my all time favorite movie. She was wonderful .. I'd like to talk to her about what it was like to be famous back then." . She also takes classes in Cardio Barre to stay fit. Prior to her marriage, she was originally credited under her maiden name, Tara Charendoff. She is also good friends/acquaintances with fellow actors Cree Summer, Rob Paulsen, Debi Derryberry, Elizabeth Daily, Tom Kenny, Cathy Cavadini, Jason Marsden, David Hayter, Jess Harnell, Greg Cipes, Richard Steven Horvitz, Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy), Kevin Michael Richardson, James Arnold Taylor, Bumper Robinson, David Kaye, Neve Campbell, Jodi Benson, Phil LaMarr, Butch Hartman, John DiMaggio, Maria Canals Barrera, Dwight Schultz, Maurice LaMarche, Scott Menville, Rino Romano, Susan Egan, Craig McCracken, Melissa Joan Hart, and the late Mary Kay Bergman.

Her favorite voices she has done during her voice-over career are Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea as she is a fan of the original The Little Mermaid which is her favorite Disney film, Toot Braunstein in Drawn Together in a Comedy Central interview Strong quoted "Toot is the funniest character I have done, Toot lives in a fantasy world, insisting that she is still a beautiful sex symbol under the delusion that all the men want her" and Raven in Teen Titans in a interview she quoted "I love playing goth characters, out of all the goths I've played Raven is my favorite and I love it how she is half demon and half good girl which is so different from all the other goths I have played. And plus my sons love the show, they love any cartoon that is based on a comic book superhero".

She is married to American actor Craig Strong (on May 14, 2000); they have two sons - Sammy James Strong (born February 5, 2002), and Aden Joshua Strong (born August 25, 2004). She and Craig are the founders of VoiceStarz, Inc., an Internet-based company which teaches people how to get into the voice-over business, of which Craig is the CEO. Tara and Craig met in early 1999 at a party hosted by Sharon Stone's sister. They currently reside in Toluca Lake, California with their sons and their two dogs, Abbey and Baci.