Sumalee Montano (born August 3, 1972) is an American actress who worked as an

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

analyst in New York City and Hong Kong before starting her acting career. For TV and film, Sumalee has appeared on '' Close to Home'', '' Days of Our Lives'', '' Nashville'', ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

'', ''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, ...

'', ''

This Is Us ''This Is Us'' is an American family drama television series that aired on NBC from September 20, 2016, to May 24, 2022. The series follows the lives and families of two parents, and their three children, in several different time frames. It s ...

'' and ''

Veep ''Veep'' is an American political satire comedy television series that aired on HBO from April 22, 2012, to May 12, 2019. The series was created by Armando Iannucci as an adaptation of his sitcom ''The Thick of It''. The protagonist of ''Veep' ...

''. As a voice actress, she has provided the voices of Pudding in ''

Space Channel 5 ''Space Channel 5'' is a music video game developed by Sega AM9 and published by parent company Sega. Originally released for the Dreamcast (1999 in Japan, 2000 worldwide), it was later ported to the PlayStation 2 (2002 in Europe, 2003 in Japan ...

'' and its

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

, Arcee on '' Transformers: Prime'', Cali in the ''

Skylanders ''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing character figures called the Skylanders on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads the figures' tags throu ...

'' series,

Katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the '' tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge f ...

on '' Beware the Batman'', the President in ''

Saints Row IV ''Saints Row IV'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 2011's '' Saints Row: The Third'', the fourth installment of the ''Saints Row'' series, and the final main installment i ...

'', the female Inquisitor in '' Dragon Age: Inquisition'', and Yuna in ''

Ghost of Tsushima ''Ghost of Tsushima'' is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The player controls Jin Sakai, samurai on a quest to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongo ...

''. She has also guest starred as Nila on the web series ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play '' Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 aft ...

''. Sumalee Montano resides and works in Los Angeles but was born in Columbus, OH.

Early life

Montano is of

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

and Thai descent and grew up mostly in the United States, but also spent a few years in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, Thailand. During her high school career, she began acting as an extracurricular activity. Her granduncle is Filipino actor and writer Severino Montano.

Education and acting career

She graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1993 and is a U.S. Fulbright scholar. After graduation, she worked as an investment-banking analyst for Morgan Stanley for a few years. After realizing investment banking wasn't something she was passionate about, Montano quit and went backpacking through Africa before realizing she wanted to pursue acting professionally. Montano has taken on a variety of different roles, both live-action and voice-over. She is talented in using many different accents, including Chinese, Filipino, British, Southern, Thai, Vietnamese, Eastern European and Japanese. Her first voice acting role was as Pudding in the 1999 music-rhythm game, ''

''. Her first major acting role was playing the nurse Duvata Mahal for three seasons of the TV show '' ER''. In 2021, Sumalee Montano gained acclaim for her role as Inoue Sato in the

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

TV series ''

The Lost Symbol ''The Lost Symbol'' is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a thriller set in Washington, D.C., after the events of ''The Da Vinci Code'', and relies on Freemasonry for both its recurring theme and its major characters. Rel ...

''. Following her portrayal as Sato, she had also appeared in the 2021 animated

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

series ''

The Ghost and Molly McGee , creator = Bill Motz & Bob Roth , voices = {{Plainlist, * Ashly Burch * Dana Snyder * Jordan Klepper * Sumalee Montano * Michaela Dietz , theme_music_composer = {{Plainlist, * Michael Kramer * Allie Feder , opent ...

'', voicing Sharon McGee, the titular character's mother, and Grandma Nin.

Filmography

Voice acting

Video games

Film

Animation

Live-action

Television

Film

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montano, Sumalee Living people American actresses of Filipino descent American film actresses American people of Thai descent American television actresses American video game actresses American voice actresses Harvard University alumni 21st-century American women Sumalee Montano Filipino voice actresses 1972 births