Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne) is an American voice actress and singer, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series Animaniacs, Babs Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures, Chip and Daisy Duck in various Disney media since 1989 and 1999 respectively. She has also worked on popular long-running animated series such as The Simpsons, Futurama, and Rugrats.
Background[]
Early life[]
Teressa Claire Payne was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 20, 1951. She loved cartoons as a child and wanted to be a voice actress from the age of eight, but instead chose a "practical" career, feeling she would never be able to realize her ambition. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended broadcasting school, becoming a disc jockey.
Career[]
MacNeille worked in a variety of jobs and had numerous minor voiceover roles before becoming a regular on an animated TV show. In her words, "I'd been doing radio spots, some TV, demos, sound-alikes, industrial narrations -- anything that came my way for about two years." She was also a member of the improvisational comedy group The Groundlings for ten years. MacNeille took acting workshops and worked as a casting assistant for voice acting talent agent Bob Lloyd in what she calls "The University of Voice-over." Lloyd and fellow agent Rita Vennari got MacNeille her first role on an animated show: a part in an episode of the 1979 Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
She sang and appeared in the music video (as Lucille Ball) for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Ricky" (1983), which was based on the I Love Lucy television show and parodied the song "Mickey" by Toni Basil. MacNeille and Mary Kay Bergman also appeared on Yankovic's 1999 album Running with Scissors, on the tracks "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" and "Jerry Springer."
MacNeille was cast as Babs Bunny in Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1992). Writer Paul Dini said that MacNeille was good for the role because she could do both Babs' voice and the voices of her impressions. MacNeille commented: "The best part of doing Babs is that she's a mimic, like me... In the show I do Babs doing Billie Burke, Hepburn, Bette Davis, Madonna and Cher. I even have her doing Jessica Rabbit." The success of Tiny Toon Adventures led to the series Animaniacs. MacNeille was brought in to voice Dot Warner, one of the show's three main characters, because Dot's character was very similar to Babs Bunny. Andrea Romano, the voice director and caster for Animaniacs, said that the casters had "no trouble" choosing the role of Dot: "Tress MacNeille was just hilarious (...) And yet [she had] that edge." MacNeille was nominated for an Annie Award for her performance on the show in 1995.
She has provided voices for numerous films, television shows, video games and commercials, garnering over 200 credits. MacNeille says: "The characters that I do all come from people in my own life--as well as the material I've stolen from my friends!" Her TV roles include characters on The Simpsons, where she voices Agnes Skinner, Brandine Spuckler and Lindsey Naegle, and Futurama, in which her main role is the character Mom. MacNeille has provided voices on many other television shows and cartoons such as Rugrats (as Charlotte Pickles), Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (as Chip and Gadget Hackwrench), Histeria, Hey Arnold, and Dave the Barbarian (as Fang), as well as dubbing work on English language anime translations.
She is the voice of Daisy Duck and Wilma Flintstone since 1999 and 2000 respectively. MacNeille also appeared as an angry anchorwoman in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and served as the voice of Elvira's Great-Aunt Morganna Talbot. She provided voice acting for the 2003 Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner short feature The Whizzard of Ow.
Personal life[]
MacNeille married Kevin Whitsett MacNeille in Carson City, Nevada, on August 29, 1974. They have one daughter.
Filmography[]
Films[]
- Rover Dangerfield (1991; Warner Bros.) - Queenie, Hen, Turkey, Chorus Girls, Chickens
- Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost (1999; Hanna-Barbera/Warner Bros.) - Sarah Ravencroft
- Wakko's Wish (1999; Warner Bros.) - Dot Warner
- Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000; Warner Bros.) - Miss Prissy, Airplane Worker, Queen of England, Penelope Pussycat
- Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2001; Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros.) - Margaret, Mom
- The Ant Bully (2006; Warner Bros.) - Old Council Ant
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012-2013; DC Comics/Warner Bros.) - Bruno
Shorts[]
- Carrotblanca (1995; Warner Bros.) - Penelope Pussycat
- Whizzard of Ow (2003; Warner Bros.) - Lady on Phone
Television[]
- Yogi's Great Escape (1987; Hanna-Barbera) - Boy, Cowboy kid #2, Mom
Roles[]
External Links[]
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The article or pieces of the original article was at Tress MacNeille. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |