Lani Minella (born July 28, 1950) is an American voice actress and talent director who remains prominent to this day, with over 450 roles to her name, mostly in video games.
From her start in 1968, she's not only become a prominent name in the voice acting industry, but she's also grown successful enough to start her own company, AudioGodz. She sports a very wide vocal range (four octaves, almost unlimited accents, and both male and female characters), and states that she's willing to work whatever job she's hired on for, from video games and animation to narration, to even IVR recordings.
Her IMDB profile is here, and her Voice123 profile is here.
Characters voiced by Lani Minella
- 40 Winks - Ruff, Tumble, Mother
- Alien: Resurrection - Ellen L. Ripley
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Girl, Mother, Clarice, Justine
- Astal - All characters
- AstroPop - The Voice
- Awesomenauts - Nibbs, Ksenia
- Backyard Sports - Sunny Day, Vinny the Gooch, Earl Grey and other Backyard Kids (Baseball 2003 and Soccer 2004)
- Bendy and the Ink Machine - Lacie Benton
- Boris and the Dark Survival - Emma LaMonte
- Bendy and the Dark Revival - Heidi, Lost One, Keeper
- Blue Stinger - Janine King
- Blood II: The Chosen - Ophelia, Gabriella
- Borderlands - Steele
- Bubsy 3D - Bubsy
- Burn Up! Excess - Maya Jingu
- Chugalong - Multiple voices
- Darksiders - Silitha, Tiamat
- Dawn of War - The Tyranid Hive Mind
- Diablo - Adria the Witch, Wirt
- Diablo II - Andariel, Blood Raven
- Drakan - Rynn
- Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes - Jane, Additional Voices
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Irileth, various other female dark elves
- Evil Zone - Alty Al Lazel, Midori Himeno, Ihadulca
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Micaiah (later darrin'd by Veronica Taylor in Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem Engage), Rolf, Mia
- Frogger: The Great Quest - Fairy Frog Mother
- Half-Life: Decay - Dr. Colette Green
- Identity V - Keigan Nicholas Keogh
- Illbleed - Eriko Christy
- Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 - Kao, Firefly (US dub)
- The Last of Us - Infected Bloaters, Infected Runners
- Malice - Dog Dog, Witch, Merhag, Crows (uncredited, but confirmed by her)
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Lucia von Bardas
- Mass Effect 3 - Eve
- MediEvil (PS4 Remake) - Narrator
- The Nancy Drew video games - Nancy Drew
- Persona 2: Eternal Punishment - Maya Amano (PS1 only)
- The Professor Layton series - Luke Triton (US dub), Flora Reinhold, Emmy Altava, and dozens of others
- Read-a-Rama - Multiple voices
- Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Juno Markev
- S.W.A.T. Global Strike Team - Sniper Lee
- Sim Settlements 2 - Judge Bishop, Shhandy
- Shadowman - Mama Nettie
- Skylanders - Sonic Boom
- Smite - Tiamat
- Sonic the Hedgehog (English voice director from 1999 to 2004):
- Sonic Adventure - Station Square and Twinkle Park's announcers
- Sonic Shuffle - Void
- Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Battle, Sonic Heroes - Rouge the Bat, Omochao
- Soul Calibur III and onwards - Ivy
- Spell-a-Rama - Multiple voices
- StarCraft - Dropship Pilot, Zerg Queen
- StarCraft II:
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Medvac Pilot
- StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - Silvan
- Star Trek Online - At least a dozen roles, including Admiral T'nae, Subcommander Mivek, Commander Phillipa Matthias, Lieutenant Jhu Terel, Lt. JG B'Elanna Torres (in a cutscene), and the Federation ship's computer (following Majel Barrett's death).
- Strider (2014) - Nang Pooh, Xi Wang Mu
- Subnautica - Sea Emperor
- Sucker for Love - Nyanlathotep
- Super Mario Bros.:
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Larry, Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy
- Super Mario 3D Land - Pom Pom
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Pit, Lucas, Lyn
- Tail Concerto - Waffle Ryebread, Panta
- Toontown Online - Goat, Monkey and Pig characters.
- Twisted Metal 4 - Zanita Corbett, Neg Jones
- World of Warcraft - Succubus, Banshee, Harpy, Stormcaller Mylra, Zaela, Panda Wraith, a Female Tuskarr, a Geist, a Female Death Knight, Herald Volazj, Brann Bronzebeard (Prior 3.1), Sindragosa
- XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - The Chosen Assassin
Tropes applying to Lani Minella:
- Acting for Two: Quite a few of her voice acting credits have more than one voice attached to them.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Among others, Wirt.
- Dawson Casting: Given her vocal range, she can play it straight, avert it, subvert it, avert it completely, and exaggerate this trope depending on the role. Listen to the demonstration close to the end of this interview.
- Fake Brit: She's the official voice of Ivy Valentine and Luke Triton, both of whom are Brits.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She uses some of her time outside the recording booth to adopt and care for rescue cats.
- Large Ham: She is perfectly capable of voicing a character that's hungry for some backdrops. Bonus points if they just happen to be well-written on top of that.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her range makes this a given, but still, considering some of the roles she's done can provoke people to think, "That voice came out of her?" Nancy Drew fans were especially surprised.
- Woman of a Thousand Voices: According to her Voice123 profile, the range of voices she can perform guarantee that she will never, ever get typecast in one particular style. Compare, for example, her voicework for Wirt from Diablo to her voiceovers for Sindel from Mortal Kombat.