Karen Strassman Information

Actor
Los Angeles, CA

Biography:
Karen Strassman is an actress, voice-over artist and dialect coach, known the world over for hundreds of characters she has created in many forms. She delights in crafting characters that touch the brilliant human spirit and entertain the child within all of us.

Whether on-camera or behind a mic, Karen is extremely versatile. She has played roles as varied as the brilliant and empathic scientist Devra Bogdanovich in Ingress, a dying immigrant from Northern Ireland, doctors and lawyers, to the quirky bookish OCD accountant recurring on Weeds, to a killer's trailer trash mother on Criminal Minds. Upcoming roles include series' regular as the piercing astrologer that guides the powerful elite in Signs, premiering in 2014.

She has created hundreds of voice-over characters of all shapes, sizes, genders, ages, and species, from classic Disney princesses, to iconic villainesses, to talking jellyfish and shy tadpoles. Karen stars as 'Jinja' in the new Nicktoons series, Monsuno, and she also voices every other female character in the show (over 24 at last count).

Karen has dual American/French nationality. She spent almost half her life in France and is fluent in French (although she's also worked in German, Spanish, Danish, Italian and Yucatec!). In France, Karen studied acting at the prestigious Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris, and also began her dialect coaching career there, teaching classes at the well-known STUDIO VO/VF and coaching famous French actors in their homes and on-set. She soon got into TV, film & voiceover, and continued to dive into as much theatre as she could, both in English and in French.

On-camera in France, Karen has shot films in all kinds of locations throughout Europe, from many artsy little indie projects, to big studio productions, working with icons like Gerard Depardieu, Jan Kounen, Polanski and Merchant & Ivory. She also appeared in many of the popular French TV series at that time.

In American television, you might recognize Karen as the quirky 'Jolene Waite' on Weeds, or in other shows such as Criminal Minds, Private Practice, Desperate Housewives, House, Gilmore Girls, Betas, Big Time Rush, The Young and the Restless, Monk, Big Love, Touch...

Karen is now starring in the breakout role of Devra Bogdanovich in Ingress, Google's new innovative hybrid multimedia crossover project. She just recently performed the motion capture and voice for the lead role of 'Kara' in Red Faction Armageddon. Also, she plays the lead character of a dying Northern Irish immigrant in the new film, Lie With Me, set to come out in 2014. Karen has now been cast as the lead in the new series Luck and Baby Dust, and as one of the lead series regulars in Signs, playing opposite Gary Dourdan, both in pre- production.

Karen has also been privileged to enjoy an extraordinarily rich career as a voice-over artist. She has worked in nearly every aspect of the industry: radio and TV commercials, animation, narration, documentaries, promos, audio books, celebrity voice-matching and voice replacement, internet media, video games, talking toys, dubbing, looping, ADR....

As one of the leading VO talents in Paris for many years, Karen could be heard as the voice for Air France, Euro-star, Disneyland Paris and for audio tours of the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, among many other things... She's dubbed Juliette Binoche into English and Meg Ryan into French! And, you may have heard her as the recurring French woman's voice on the walkie-talkie on the TV series Lost...

Karen marvels at all the rich and exciting adventures she's had in her lifetime and is so deeply grateful for all the wonderful, extraordinary people she has gotten to work with and experiences shared in her short time on this little sphere hurdling through space...

Major VO clients have included Disney, HBO, Sony, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Microsoft, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi, Showtime, The CW, CBS, Klasky- Csupo, Viacom, THQ, Bandai, Atlus, Volition, Namco, Pioneer, Konami, Vivendi, VU Games, Square Enix Co, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Technicolor, Disneyland, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Clarins, Vidal Sassoon, Acura, Kia, Hallmark, Mattel and Diet Coke (Karen has recently become one the new voices for Diet Coke's "Extraordinary" campaign).

An extensive list of Karen's credits can be found on IMDB or her website, but some of her favorite VO projects include: League of Legends, LEGO Friends, Monster High, Winx Club, Monster, Monsuno, Rugrats All Growed Up, Bleach, StarCraft 2, World of WarCraft, EndWar, Final Fantasy, Fallout, Everquest, Red Faction Armageddon, Persona, Bioshock 2, Castlevania, Rumble Roses, Mortal Combat, Saboteur, Silent Hill, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Tony Hawk, Valkyria, Street Fighter X Tekken, Van Helsing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dead or Alive, Resident Evil...