Laura Bailey

About

Laura Bailey is an American voice actress. She has provided the voices for characters of multiple franchises within the anime and video game scene. She is also one of the main cast members on the web series Critical Role. In 2020, she became the target of online harassment from people unhappy with the character Abby she voiced in The Last Of Us Part II.

Online History

Laura Bailey began her voice acting career as early as 1999 with her work in Dragon Ball Z, providing the voice for a multitude of child characters, most notably the character Trunks. She would get her first starring role in the anime Fruits Basket as the lead character Tohru Honda, a role that Bailey herself commented has a had positive influence on her life and personality. She went on to voice multiple prominent anime roles, including Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist and Maka Albarn from Soul Eater.

Bailey has also made a prominent contribution in voice acting in the video game industry, with one of her earliest prominent roles being the character Rayne from the Bloodrayne franchise. She would go on to voice many prominent characters in gaming, such as Chun-Li from the Street Fighter franchise, Lucina from Fire Emblem: Awakening, Kait Diaz from the Gears of War franchise, and most recently Abby from The Last of Us Part II.

Bailey is also a main cast member on the web series Critical Role where she and other fellow voice actors and friends embark on Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. She provides the voices for her characters Vex'ahlia and Jester Lavorre.

Personal Life

Laura Bailey sports a Twitter account that boasts over 500K followers as of July 4th, 2020, and a Facebook page with over 54K likes and 86K follows. She is married to fellow voice actor and Critical Role co-star Travis Willingham.^[2]

Online Harassment

On June 19th, 2020, Bailey became the target of harassment for her voice work for the controversial character of Abby in The Last of Us Part 2, a game that up to that point had received divisive recognition among fans of the franchise.^[3] The voice actress didn't acknowledge the harassment until July 3rd, 2020,^[1] commenting on the mental and emotional toll it had brought upon her, ranging from death threats to threats to her family. Her tweet acknowledging the harassment has received over 169,000 likes and 35,800 retweets, with an outpouring of support from her fans.

The harassment towards Bailey for her role as Abby would receive coverage from multiple media outlets online,^[4][5] as well as YouTube videos from ReviewTech USA, Ryan Kinel – RK Outpost, Tajae, and Jim Sterling.

External Links