Sarah Horn Elmaleh is an American voice actor. She has voice roles in the
indie video game
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large Video game publisher, game publisher, in contrast to most AAA ...
s ''
Gone Home
''Gone Home'' is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company. ''Gone Home'' was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the Play ...
'' (2013) and ''
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' is an adventure game developed by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge, and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment. It was released for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows in February 2018. In November 2019, Sere ...
'' (2018) and
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
titles such as ''
Final Fantasy XV
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The fifteenth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, Microsoft Windows in 2018, and as a launch title ...
'' (2016), ''
For Honor
''For Honor'' is an action game developed and published by Ubisoft. The game allows players to play the roles of historical forms of soldiers and warriors such as knights, samurai, vikings, controlled using a third-person perspective. The game ...
'' (2017), and ''
Anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
'' (2019). She became involved with
union organizing
A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers.
In some unions, the orga ...
, mainly with
SAG-AFTRA
The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, record ...
, after her move to Los Angeles in 2015. In 2019, she founded the multilingual, online games conference
gamedev.world with game developer
Rami Ismail
Rami Ismail (born 30 October 1988) is a Dutch independent video game developer and spokesperson within the video game industry on the topics of diversity and reaching out to game developers from developing countries. He co-founded the studio Vlam ...
.
Early life
Sarah Horn Elmaleh practiced dancing from the age of three until she was fourteen, when an injury led her to become involved in theater in high school.
She attended
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
, located in
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...
, where she performed in
radio drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
s, which she felt drew on her childhood experiences of playing video games, especially
adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
s by
LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
and games by
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...
.
She graduated in 2007.
Career
Elmaleh performed in theater in New York for a few years after she graduated from university and found that auditions for voice-over roles were "less stressful and more fun, more playful, more casual" than other types of auditions.
She also worked at ''
Kill Screen
''Kill Screen'' (stylized as ''KILL SCREEN'') was a print and online magazine founded in 2009 by Jamin Warren and Chris Dahlen and owned by Kill Screen Media, Inc. It focused on video games and culture, but also included articles based on e ...
'' magazine.
Her credits for video game voice work go back to 2011.
After she moved from
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
to Los Angeles in 2015 to voice
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
video games, she became involved with
union organizing
A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers.
In some unions, the orga ...
in the video game industry.
She has voice roles in the
indie video game
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large Video game publisher, game publisher, in contrast to most AAA ...
s ''
Gone Home
''Gone Home'' is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company. ''Gone Home'' was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the Play ...
'' (2013) and ''
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' is an adventure game developed by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge, and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment. It was released for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows in February 2018. In November 2019, Sere ...
'' (2018), and the AAA titles ''
Final Fantasy XV
is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The fifteenth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, Microsoft Windows in 2018, and as a launch title ...
'' (2016) and ''
For Honor
''For Honor'' is an action game developed and published by Ubisoft. The game allows players to play the roles of historical forms of soldiers and warriors such as knights, samurai, vikings, controlled using a third-person perspective. The game ...
'' (2017).
Elmaleh provided the voice of the female
player character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...
in
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...
's 2019 video game ''
Anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
''.
A review by the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' praised the game's acting, among other features, singling out Elmaleh's performance as "instantly likeable, infusing our hero with roguishness, confidence, friendliness and authentic wit."
Before she was hired to work on the game, she provided the voices for characters in a
mod
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
of the BioWare-produced game ''
Dragon Age: Origins''.
After allegations of ''Anthem''s protracted development timeline were reported after the game's release, in early 2019, Elmaleh spoke to ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' on the game's development and her favorable personal experiences during the process; she also said she was recording lines for a planned update to the game.
Union activities
As a member of the labor union
SAG-AFTRA
The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, record ...
, in 2015, Elmaleh voted in favor of
strike action by video game voice actors against eleven video game developers and publishers to receive compensation through
residuals in addition to other requests on working conditions. She participated in the strike,
which began in October 2016, following failed contract negotiations with publishers through the previous year, and lasted until 2017.
In late October 2018, the union released a contract which addressed the issues of compensation and working conditions for unionized voice actors,
motion-capture performers, and singers, and also provided a way for actors to work on small game productions under the union. The agreement was developed through a two-year process led by voice actors including Elmaleh,
Crispin Freeman
Crispin Freeman is an American voice actor, voice director, and screenwriter who is best known for voicing characters in English-language dubs of Japanese anime, animation, and video games. Some of his prominent anime roles include Zelgadis Grayw ...
,
Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', '' Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', ''Overwatch'', and '' Sta ...
, and
Courtenay Taylor
Courtenay Taylor is an American actress. She is best known for her video game voice roles as Jack in the ''Mass Effect'' series, Ada Wong in the ''Resident Evil'' series, and the female Sole Survivor in ''Fallout 4''.
Career
Taylor has been na ...
.
Elmaleh told ''
Gamasutra
''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...
'' at the time: "The only apprehension I had in joining the union was missing out on this whole burgeoning space of ambitious artistic expression. Coming out of indies and loving them, and not wanting to lose them as I scale up."
Elmaleh voice acted under the new contract in the 2018 titles ''
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' is an adventure game developed by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge, and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment. It was released for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows in February 2018. In November 2019, Sere ...
'' by
Good Shepherd Entertainment
Good Shepherd Entertainment (formerly Gambitious Digital Entertainment) is a Dutch video game publisher based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2011 and opened its equity crowdfunding platform in September 2012. Gambitious' publishing la ...
and ''
Exapunks
''Exapunks'' is a programming game developed by Zachtronics. It was released into early access on August 9, 2018, and fully released on October 22, 2018.
Gameplay
''Exapunks'' takes place in an alternate timeline in the year 1997. The fictional ...
'' by
Zachtronics
Zachtronics LLC is an American indie video game studio, best known for their engineering puzzle games and programming games. Zachtronics was founded by Zach Barth in 2000, who serves as its lead designer. Some of their products include '' SpaceChe ...
.
In 2018, Elmaleh, Jennifer Hale, and
Cissy Jones
Cissy Jones is an American voice actress.
Jones's voice has appeared in games such as ''Firewatch'', '' The Walking Dead'', '' Life Is Strange'', '' Grand Theft Auto V'' and ''Darksiders III''. She voiced the part of Lois Lane in the 2018 game ...
created Specialized Workshops And Actor Tactics (SWAAT), a free service to improve video game scripts held with the Los Angeles-based company The Halp Network. Although actors involved with SWAAT were members of the SAG-AFTRA union, SWAAT did not require the game developer's project be under the union.
gamedev.world
Elmaleh previously worked "game-maker relations" for the
IndieCade
IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance."Fritz, Ben"IndieCade, the video game industry's Sundance" Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009, accessed July 21, 2011. ...
games festival, a position in which she says she acted as the "single bottleneck" between the festival and participating game developers. She recalled meeting a game developer at her job who struggled to communicate with her in English, which motivated her to meet game developer
Rami Ismail
Rami Ismail (born 30 October 1988) is a Dutch independent video game developer and spokesperson within the video game industry on the topics of diversity and reaching out to game developers from developing countries. He co-founded the studio Vlam ...
after reading a blog post by Ismail on
language barrier
A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally speaking different languages, or even dialects in some ...
s in the video game industry.
Ismail and Elmaleh eventually organized the online, multilingual games conference
gamedev.world in 2019, supported by an advisory board made from Gwen Frey, Houssem Ben Amor and Gabriel Dal Santo,
in order to "diversify" the video game industry.
The conference features a series of presentations by developers broadcast with
closed captioning
Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio por ...
and translations in eight languages.
It followed an initial showcase of the format organized by Ismail and Elmaleh for the 2015
Games for Change
Games for Change (also known as G4C) is a nonprofit organization. The organization provides support, visibility, and shared resources to individuals and organizations using serious games for social change. It also runs the G4C Student Challenge ...
Festival held in New York City.
Personal life
On her personal website, Elmaleh states that she identifies as "
bi/
pansexual
, meaning "all"
, definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender
, classification = Sexual identity
, parent = Bisexuality
, synonyms =
, associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...
and
gender-expansive/
genderqueer
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...
" and that her ethnicity is a combination of "English, German, French, Irish and
French-Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...
, as well as 1/4 Moroccan (
Sephardic Jewish) and 1/8 Japanese (''
yonsei'')." Her father, Antonio Osato Elmaleh (1950–2020), was an investor and former restaurateur and film producer.
Voice-over filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elmaleh, Sarah
Living people
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American voice directors
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American Sephardic Jews
21st-century LGBT people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Women in the video game industry
American bisexual actors
American non-binary actors
Wesleyan University alumni