SIDNEY — Viewers watching the premiere of “Big Nate” on Paramount+ might recognize the voice of one of the characters as Sidney native, Lisa Kay Jennings.
“I don’t think I ever saw this in my future. I was a die-hard ballerina, and I thought my future was going to be in a tutu with no speaking. It’s definitely a shock,” Jennings said.
Jennings, who has been a professional voice actor since 2008, got her start in voice acting while attending Wright State University. Her speech professor had given a crash-course to her class in voiceover work, and at the end of it, had pulled Jennings aside and told her that it was something she had a natural talent for and should focus on. She started taking coaching sessions from the late Rocco Dal Vera, who helped her create a demo and hone her skills as a voice actor.
“When I finally moved off to L.A., I had a voiceover demo, and that’s what got me into the industry here. It all started back in my college days,” Jennings said.
The series “Big Nate”, based off of a comic first published in 1991 by the same name, was first announced by Nickelodeon on Feb. 19, 2020. Following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 and the shutdowns that followed, the series was recorded entirely through remote Zoom sessions — a first for Jennings and many of the cast and crew that collaborated on the show. Prior to the pandemic, Jennings was accustomed to working in-studio with engineers who would set up equipment and adjust the settings to microphones and other sound equipment according to each voice actor and what was needed from them. During remote sessions, the voice actors had to become their own engineers.
“Being a voice actor during a global pandemic has made it a huge challenge to be your own engineer, to make sure you have all the right equipment, knowing when to turn down your mic — it’s all these little things that I never had to think of in over a decade, and now all of a sudden it’s like, ‘oh wow, this is new!’,” Jennings said.
Jennings said that the show’s primary engineer was a great resource and help in getting the voice actors comfortable with their equipment and handling such an unusual task. She added that it was weird not being able to hang out with the cast members in-person and get the opportunity to build relationships as they normally would have. They reached out to each other through social media a lot and even coordinated a discord server so that they could communicate through their phones during sessions and give each other feedback and support to each other.
“We finally got to meet for the first time at a gathering in early December, and it was so weird after a year and a half of just seeing each other in these little boxes,” Jennings said.
In “Big Nate”, Jennings plays Gina Hemphill-Toms, who is described as main character Nate Wright’s nemesis. In Jennings’ own words, Gina is a “know-it-all” and rule follower, who doesn’t care for people who take shortcuts and don’t follow the rules. When finding Gina’s voice, Jennings wanted to capture a nasal-quality in addition to giving her some variety in her laughter, to suit different situations and emotions.
“When I think of smart people and of nerdy people, I kind of go to the nasal spot of my voice. In my audition sides, she had these evil moments, so I do this really great evil cackle, but I also wanted to give her a normal laugh for when she’s not quite so evil,” Jennings said. “I tend to go high-pitched with my younger girl characters, as well, so it just grew from there.”
While this isn’t Jennings’ first time voicing a character in a major network show—she has also lent her vocal talents to the English dub of popular French animated series “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir” as recurring antagonist Lila Rossi—she still says it’s surreal to get to tell stories and create memorable characters through her voice, and be part of so many peoples’ lives in unique way.
“I like to imagine in the future that I’ll have somebody say to me, ‘you are my childhood’, but I hope that this show—and I do believe it will—will go on and on for many years because I do believe in it. I think it’s really great, and I hope that I can have that kind of impact,” Jennings said. “Just to be part of animation and part of that is such an honor.”
“Big Nate” will premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday, Feb. 17 and includes the voices of Ben Giroux, Dove Cameron, Rob Delaney, Arnie Pantoja, Charlie Schlatter, Kevin Michael Richardson, Carolyn Hennesy, Daniel MK Cohen and Bryce Charles.
