DULUTH — Before recording an action scene, there's some important information Melissa Medina needs to know.
"They'll tell you, 'You're going to die three times in a row,' and I go, 'Well, how?'" Medina said with a laugh. "There's a lot of ways to die, man!"
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The appearance of Medina's home studio, warmly lit in hues of pink and purple with artificial greenery and sound baffling lining the walls, belies the often intense situations the actor channels while standing before a fur-lined professional microphone.
"I don't get to play sweet, cutesy characters very often," said Medina last week, standing in the studio. "I very often play villains and really mean people."
There are exceptions — like the endearing Lucita Sky in a video game based on the PBS Kids show "Hero Elementary," and a character in the show "LEGO Friends: Girls On a Mission" — but Medina doesn't mind playing baddies.
I found Duluth to be really healing, and I was able to find my voice here in a way that I hadn't in a really long time.
"I love being villains," said Medina. "Nobody wants to be the villain, but I'm fine with losing. That's the whole point of a villain, right? To lose at the end, and have that victory be even sweeter for the hero."
A typical day for the actor begins with recording voice samples as auditions for potential roles.
"I get to figure out how to approach the character," said Medina, "and how much of myself I'm going to bring to it. That's what I do, specifically, because I'm the 'different choice' or the 'non-traditional choice.'"
In other words, Medina typically expects to be in the mix with other actors who might seem, to casting directors, more obvious choices for a role.
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"Being remote is one thing. Being LGBT is another thing; non-binary is another thing," explained Medina, who takes they/she pronouns. "Being Hispanic is another thing. So, multiple levels of not the norm."
Even in the world of voice acting, where parts can be recorded anywhere, being far from Hollywood does present challenges. "There is a hierarchy of L.A. first," said Medina, "so there's definitely a difficulty about being a remote voice actor."
The upside? Medina can see it from the window of their home in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. "This would be millions of dollars in L.A.," said Medina, looking out at a panoramic view of the St. Louis River Estuary.
Medina grew up in South Texas and spent a decade in Seattle, then went looking for "something that felt more like a community." The actor and a former spouse found Minnesota and initially moved to St. Paul, then discovered Duluth.
"We came up here just on a whim, randomly, and we thought, this is beautiful and I want to stay here forever," Medina remembered. "Everybody was just super welcoming and nice, and it didn't have a lot of the ego that we were used to in those bigger cities."
"She's absurdly talented," said Tom Moriarty, a Duluth visual artist who's become a friend of Medina's. "Incredibly intelligent, and very witty. She's got quite the ferocity in what she does, and is a very loving, supportive, protective version of that."
Medina moved north in 2021, following a divorce. The Minnesota move was also tied to a career change. Previously, Medina was employed in the tech industry.
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"I actually started doing voice acting during the pandemic," Medina said. "It was just a good time for me to get in and do that, since everybody was being remote. I didn't have to be in L.A., and that was beneficial for me so I got my foot in the door just in time."
Medina does "95%" of their work, they estimate, from Duluth. The world comes to them, with directors often leading recording sessions via videoconference.
"Yesterday, I worked with somebody in Poland," said Medina. "The other day I worked with somebody in New Zealand."
Occasionally, a trip to California is required, for example, when a project is under such tight security that producers can't even send scripts over email. In just a few years, Medina has entered the ranks of actors voicing characters in some of the world's best-known franchises.
"In 'Aliens: Fireteam (Elite),' I play the main game teacher character, the one who tells you where to go, what to do, who to shoot," said Medina. "I grew up watching 'Aliens,' I loved it! I love horror and sci-fi. So that was a big deal for me."
In the online role-playing game "Star Wars: The Old Republic," Medina plays a character named Heta Kol. "She's a general and a Mandalorian, and her thing is trying to save her people, no matter what the cost is," said the actor, adding with a laugh, "and the cost is high."
While the droids of "Star Wars" remain science fiction, in the real world, artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, and it's become a major point of contention in the ongoing dispute between professional actors and the studios that employ them.
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While voice actors haven't been affected by the actors' strike as much as on-camera performers have, Medina is a Screen Actors Guild union member and has halted work on certain television shows.
Medina recently released a widely shared video alerting voice actors to the risks of artificial intelligence, drawing on the Duluthian's tech background to explain some of the finer points. The bottom line: Be mindful of where you share your professional talent, and of what you sign.
"There's a couple of video games that were very, very popular that snuck a clause in that they're able to clone your voice and auto-generate new content for the character that you voiced for things like promotional material. If you die, they'll keep your character going past your death. It's just insane," said Medina.
Complicating the issue is the fact that voice-cloning technology is now so readily available, you don't need the resources of a big studio to make use of it.
"Some of it is well-intentioned," said Medina, "fans wanting to hear their favorite character's voice in the things that they're making, and they can't afford to pay an actor. So they claim the voice without permission, and essentially that's stealing our voice."
In other cases, the intentions are less pure. "I've had my voice stolen and used to say awful things," said Medina. "All you can really do is demand that the person take it down. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't."
Medina studied music in college at the University of Texas, and formerly used their voice, professionally, as an opera singer. When Medina left that career behind for the tech world, it was audiobook listening that inspired them to consider a career as a spoken voice performer. (They still sing, occasionally, for acting jobs.)
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"I dove into audiobooks," said Medina, "and I didn't realize at the time, that's one of the hardest things you can do in audio. But it was a good way for me to learn very quick, and then I fell into video games and I haven't left since."
Nor does Medina plan to leave the Zenith City. "I found Duluth to be really healing, and I was able to find my voice here in a way that I hadn't in a really long time," said the actor.
A shelf near Medina's studio window contains toys, comics and other items relating to characters the actor has voiced. One item on display actually uses a recording Medina made.
"This is a character from 'Beetlejuice,'" said Medina, displaying an electronic door knocker bearing the face of a blue-green beauty queen from Tim Burton's 1988 horror comedy. "The original actress actually passed away, and so I'm filling her shoes now."
When activated, the knocker chided Medina in the actor's own voice, quoting dialogue from the movie. "My friends are going to grab it now," said Medina. "They're like, 'I want your face on my door!'"
An archery bow hung above the shelf. Another character reference? Nope, it's a hobby. "I love archery," said Medina, who uses snow piles for target practice.
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Medina's come a long way from South Texas, but as a neon sign hanging on the actor's studio wall declares, "This must be the place."
"I love Talking Heads, so that's my favorite song," said Medina, referencing the band's 1983 track by that title. "It sort of encompasses my feeling of being here now. I am home."
To learn more about Melissa Medina's work, visit hearmelissa.com.
The Trust Project
