Erika Ishii is an American

voice actress Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

and

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

. She is best known as the voice of video game characters such as Valkyrie in ''

Apex Legends ''Apex Legends'' is a free-to-play Battle royale game, battle royale-hero shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in February 2019, for Nintendo ...

'', as well as her appearances in

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the game ...

web series including ''

L.A. by Night ''L.A. by Night'' is an American actual play web series where the cast plays as vampires using the fifth edition ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' ruleset. It is set Canon (fiction), canonically in the ''World of Darkness'' series after the events of ...

'' and ''

Dimension 20 ''Dimension 20'' is a tabletop role-playing game show produced by CollegeHumor, and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master. Most of the games use ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition. Seasons of the show ...

''.

Career

Ishii's work as an actress started at a young age, with a guest appearance on ''

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three dau ...

''.
In an interview with

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (progr ...

, Ishii stated that playing ''

The Last of Us ''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. ' ...

'' (2013) inspired her to enter voice acting in video games. From the late 2010s, Ishii performed voice roles in numerous video games, and would ultimately contribute voice work to ''

The Last of Us Part II ''The Last of Us Part II'' is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Set five years after ''The Last of Us'' (2013), the game focuses on two playable chara ...

'' in 2020. During her early career, Ishii was advised to conceal her sexuality and political views to avoid losing work. Later she became more open about her orientation and identity. Ishii indicated that doing so was a positive step, as it allowed her to be part of a community, and to take on relevant roles. "The industry is beginning to recognize the value of authenticity and inclusion. It makes for better art and it's what the majority of the world wants to see." Ishii spoke positively about her role as the mixed-Japanese lesbian Valkyrie in ''Apex Legends'', stating that "None of it was tokenism... She's one of the most real characters I've ever had the honour of portraying." Ishii was a

and producer for '' Geek & Sundry''. Ishii is known for her roles in

role-playing web shows such as ''

'' and ''

''. In January 2023, it was announced that Ishii with Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, and Lou Wilson will star in the creator-owned actual play podcast ''Worlds Beyond Number''; the show is scheduled to premiere in March 2023. Ishii was a narrator for the audiobook ''Walk Among Us'', "an audio-first trio of horror novellas set in '' Vampire: The Masquerade''s

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

". Ishii has also hosted other events such as the 2018

Crunchyroll Anime Awards The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first presen ...

and the 2021 Acceleration Japan showcase. In September 2021, Ishii was a featured artist on the acoustic version of the song "Can You Feel My Love" by the music group Juniper Vale.

Personal life

Ishii is openly pansexual and genderfluid. She has been vocal in her opposition to

transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

, and she has raised funds for

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

supporting charities such as

The Trevor Project The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number wher ...

Filmography

Voice-over filmography

Web series

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishii, Erika Living people Actresses from Los Angeles American non-binary actors American video game actresses American voice actresses LGBT American people of Asian descent Pansexual actresses 21st-century American actresses American actresses of Japanese descent Pansexual non-binary people Year of birth missing (living people)