Eliza Jane Schneider (born February 3, 1978) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, playwright, dialect coach and dialectologist, and voice artist. She has appeared on television and as a voiceover actress on video games and cartoons. She also performs various musical and stage shows.
Video Eliza Schneider
Early life and television work
Schneider spent her formative years on a Chippewa reservation in Bemidji, Minnesota with her two older brothers in a mostly Jewish family. Her father was a math and drama teacher at the School of Arts High School in Rochester, New York, where she graduated as salutatorian. Her mother was an attorney for the reservation. She started playing violin, learning the Suzuki method, after seeing El Shenkar. When she was sixteen, she was in her first musical group, IT'S MY PARTY! From ages 7-20, she went to Jewish summer camp, becoming a counselor, and started performing on stage. By the time she was in the fourth grade she began writing and performing her own plays, because the teacher told her that she would only be allowed to stage a play if she "wrote, produced, directed." Four years later she was chosen for a part in Annie; Schneider's parents would not let her tour with the troupe after being cast. She participated in a theater program at Northwestern University's National High School Institute and graduated from UCLA as a world arts and cultures major.
While in college she continued going to auditions and got the role of Sheila Brentwood in the television series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys. For the show she was allowed to cast the actors who played her parents. After the show got canceled, she replaced Alanna Ubach for the second and third seasons of Beakman's World.
Maps Eliza Schneider
Dialect research and stage shows
For her college senior thesis, Schneider made a cross-country road tour in a former ambulance studying regional dialects. During her research into accents, she "visited all the English-speaking countries in the world, conducting more than 7,000 interviews over all." From the interviews she created a one-woman show called Freedom of Speech in which she tells the stories of 34 people in their voices. The various quotes are combined into a story. When interviewed about the shows by Western Washington University newspaper The Western Front, she explained that "People in America today are scared to speak up and tell their perspective on what our nation is or where it is going... I wanted to repeat the peoples' words verbatim so the audience could develop their own perspective." Using a semi-autobiographical approach, Schneider links the quotes and stories together, saying "it's really a love story about a petulant girl who starts out hating America for perpetuating hate. She begins collecting sounds and winds up falling in love with her country." The show won the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival award for "Best Solo Show".
Her ensuing solo show, Words of the Prophets, is composed partially of quotes from "homeless people all over the world."
In 2007, Schneider wrote a play called "Sounds of Silence: A Documentary Puppet Musical Farce" about the 2004 United States election voting controversies in Ohio.
Music and voiceover work
When explaining about her dialect and musical interest she said; "You know how they talk about a photographic memory? That's not actually how my mind works. It's aural. I remember what I hear...when I try to do a piece onstage, I hear the next words [they actually said]. I hear the rest of the monologue. It takes every bit of strength and intellect that I have to control that." In a 2013 interview she explained that "to me, music, voice, voices of the people, play writing, dialect, language, violin - it all springs from the same well of fascination with sound."
After Mary Kay Bergman, the voice of many South Park characters, died, a friend of Schneider's asked her to contact her agent to arrange an audition. Schneider and Mona Marshall were hired as the lead female voice actors. This was a position she held until 2003, when she left over the show's producers' refusal to extend her a union contract. She was replaced by April Stewart. During this time Schneider was part of Honey Pig, an all-female country and western trio.
Accident and family life
In 2006, Schneider was involved in a car accident, resulting in a head injury and a broken hand.
Schneider and her partner, Roger Ray, have a son named Raiden Daniel. Schneider is working as a violin instructor for her son and other children.
In 2012, she joined the cast of Spider Baby the Musical for a San Diego performance, playing the role of Emily Howe.
Voiceover projects
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (video game) (2006) - Elizabeth Swann
- Kingdom Hearts II (2006) - Elizabeth Swann, additional voices
- Finding Nemo (2003) - additional voices
- Shadow Complex (2009) - Clair
- Assassin's Creed II (2009) - Rebecca Crane
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (2009) - Valkyrie #2
- Alice in Wonderland (2010 video game) - The White Queen
- Blade Kitten (2010) - Justice Kreel, Terra-Gin, additional voices
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010) - Rebecca Crane
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) - Rebecca Crane
- Assassin's Creed III (2012) - Rebecca Crane
- Lego The Lord of the Rings (2012) - Additional voices
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (2013) - Ms. Decibel
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) - Rebecca Crane
- The Lego Movie Videogame (2014)
- Skylanders: Trap Team (2014) - Mags, Bat Spin
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (2015) - Arecia Al-Rashia
- Skylanders: SuperChargers (2015) - Mags, Bat Spin
- Lego Dimensions (2015) - Additional voices
- Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015) - Rebecca Crane
- Lego Marvel's Avengers (2016) - Pepper Potts
- Prey (2017) - Mikhaila Ilyushin
Television
- South Park (1999-2003)
- Popzilla (2009) MTV
- Girlfriends (Season 2)
- Episode: "Sister, Sista" (2002) (as Lynn Searcy's sister, Tanya)
- Spy TV
- Episode 1.2. (2001l (as various characters)
- Beakman's World (1994-1995) (as Liza)
- Black Tie Affair (1993)
- The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys (1992) (as Sheila Brentwood)
- Squirrel Boy (2006-2007) (Martha)
- Invader Zim (2003) (episode The Girl Who Cried Gnome as Moofy)
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2011) (episode The Scorn of the Star Sapphire! as Baroness Paula von Gunther and Georgette Taylor)
Character voices
This a partial list of Schneider's regular voiceover characters.
- South Park
- Wendy Testaburger
- Sharon Marsh
- Liane Cartman
- Shelley Marsh
- Mayor McDaniels
- Principal Victoria
- Mrs. Crabtree
- Carol McCormick
- Estella
- Popzilla
- Gisele Bündchen
- Tori Spelling
- Michelle Obama
- Britney Spears
- Beyoncé
- Ugandan Adoption Agent
- Heidi Klum
Video games
- Alice in Wonderland - The Talking Flowers
- Assassin's Creed series - Rebecca Crane
- Blade Kitten - Justice Kreel, Terra-Gin, Squamatan Female 1
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Additional Voices
- Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Additional Voices
- Captain America: Super Soldier - HYDRA
- Diablo III - Additional Voices
- Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Female Necromancer
- Dragon Age: Origins - Iona, Lady Dace, Mardy, Nutella, Lothering Sister, Lothering Refugee, Surface Dwarf, Tapster's Patron, Howe Estate Cook, Alienage Elf Woman, Awestruck Villager, Circle Tower Apprentice Mage, Royal Palace Servant
- Epic Mickey - Additional Voices
- EverQuest II - Generic Female Barbarian Merchant, Generic Female Dark Elf Merchant, Generic Female Dwarf Merchant
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - Arecia
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Additional Voices
- Grand Theft Auto V - The Local Population
- Infinity Blade III - Additional Voices
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Maid of Windemere, Additional Voices
- LawBreakers - Bomchelle
- Lego Dimensions - Nya
- Lego Marvel's Avengers - Pepper Potts/Rescue
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - Nemesis Orcs
- Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - NPC Female Teen, NPC Female Gnome, Lienna
- Prey - Mikhaila Ilyushin
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time - Valkyrie #2
- Saints Row - Stilwater's Resident
- Saints Row: The Third - Pedestrian and Character Voices
- Saints Row IV - The Voices of Virtual Steelport
- Shadow Complex - Claire Duncan
- Skylanders: SuperChargers - Mags, Bat Spin
- Skylanders: Trap Team - Mags, Bat Spin
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - Miss Decibel
- The Last of Us - Additional Voices
- The LEGO Movie Videogame - Additional Voices
- The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest - Eowyn
- Yogi Bear: The Video Game - Rachel Johnson
References
External links
- Official website
- Eliza Schneider on IMDb
- Salon.com's article on Blue Girl
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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