Kathleen Herles (born November 13, 1990) is an American voice actress best known for being the original voice of Dora on ''

Dora the Explorer ''Dora the Explorer'' is an American children's animated television series and multimedia franchise created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes and Eric Weiner that premiered on Nickelodeon on August 14, 2000, went on hiatus on June 5, 20 ...

'' for the first four seasons from 2000–2007 and ''

Go, Diego, Go! ''Go, Diego, Go!'' is an American children's animated television program that premiered on Nickelodeon on September 6, 2005 in the United States. Created and executive produced by Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes, the series is a spin-of ...

''. Herles was born in the

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her parents are from

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, Peru. She has studied ballet, tap, jazz, drama, and voice. She takes piano lessons. She was discovered by talent manager Shirley Grant of Shirley Grant Management at a talent and modeling convention when she was 4 years old. She graduated from Pace University in 2012. In 2007, Herles retired from doing the voice for Dora The Explorer and was replaced by

Caitlin Sanchez Caitlin Sanchez is an American actress, best known for being the second voice of the title character Dora in the Nickelodeon animated children's series ''Dora the Explorer''. Career In 2008, Sanchez took over the voice role of the seven-year-old ...

. Herles' final time providing the voice of Dora the Explorer, along with the original cast of ''Go, Diego, Go!'' (like Jake T. Austin), was in the feature-length TV special, ''Diego's Great Polar Bear Rescue'', which aired on September 18, 2009.

Awards and nominations

In 2007, Herles was nominated for an

Imagen Award The Imagen Awards are administered by the Imagen Foundation, an organization dedicated to "encouraging and recognizing the positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry." To be considered for an Imagen Award, a media piece or person ...

for Best Television Actress. She was nominated in 2007 and 2008 for a

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance in a Youth/Children's Series or Special.

References

External links

* 1990 births American voice actresses American child actresses Living people Actresses from New York City American people of Peruvian descent Hispanic and Latino American actresses Pace University alumni People from Queens, New York 21st-century American actresses People from Deer Park, New York {{US-voice-actor-1990s-stub