We spoke with voice actor Stephanie Young about her career in voice acting. Stephanie is most known for voicing Nico Robin in One Piece, Olivier Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and more.
Actor Spotlight: Stephanie Young
Stephanie Young has been a voice actor for more than twenty years. Her “aha” moment for wanting to be a voice actor came to her during her very first audition.
“It was after my first audition. I had been doing commercial voiceover work and on-camera. I’m a theater kid…I was working freshly in the theater. And then my agent said, ‘Would you like to audition for this place called Funimation?’ And she told me – I didn’t know anything about anime – but she told me that, and I said, ‘Well, yeah! I’d love to go audition for that.’ And then I went in and said, ‘Oh, yes. I want to do this! This, right here.’”
Most of Stephanie’s characters are very relatable. She said, “I love it when life goes together. And either it’s similar or you just are able to work through some things.”
One Piece
One Piece is an ongoing manga and anime series created by Eiichiro Oda. The series debuted in 1997 and there are currently 1034 chapters. One Piece began airing as an anime in the United States in 1999 with new episodes still being released each week. The story follows Monkey D. Luffy and his rag-tag team of pirates as they search for the highly-sought after treasure called the One Piece.
Stephanie Young is the voice of Nico Robin. Robin is an archaeologist and member of the Straw Hat Pirates. Voicing a character for twenty years is phenomenal, and Stephanie could not say enough good things about Robin’s character.
“She’s just a part of my life now. You know? We’ve been together for a very long time, and she’s also a character that I just – I respect her immensely. Her journey, her arc, and her growth. To even have a character that goes through everything that she’s been through and then comes out on the other side, opening up and growing as a person…I nerd out over her!”
Stephanie Young is scheduled to be a special guest at this year’s Anime Pasadena event. She said:
“Not to only talk about One Piece, but it’s kind of a thing right now…but so many of the Straw Hat Pirates are going to be there! I’m excited because we see each other in, like, bits and pieces, and we’re friends and actually really love each other. So I’m so excited for us just to be in the same convention hall!”
Anime Pasadena is happening at the Pasadena Convention Center on November 4th and 5th. Tickets are on sale now!
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