Monday, October 25, 2010

Ming-Na Wen (Aanes/Zee)

Also known as "Ming-Na" or "Ming Wen", she has one of the more distinctive voices in the business, as shown by the extensive amount of animation voice-over work she's done in both tv and film!
Ming's demonstrated her acting chops in The Joy Luck Club and ER and her action prowess in the first Street Fighter film and Push (which is, ironically, opening shortly before the new Street Fighter film debuts).
Note: I complained about her lack of fighting ability in Street Fighter, but she has improved, as shown by her performanaces in Vanished and Push!
UPDATE: Ming's been cast as Agent Melinda May in Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. TV pilot!

Genre credits include...
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Agent Melinda May)
StarGate Universe aka SGU (Camille Wray)
Push (Emily Hu)
Prom Night[2008] (Dr. Elisha Crowe)
Vanished (Agent Lin Mei)
Kingdom Hearts II[VG] / Mulan II/ Mulan/ House of Mouse (Fa Mulan)
The Batman (Detective Ellen Yin)
Spawn 3: Ultimate Battle/ Todd McFarlane's Spawn(Jade / Lisa Wu)
Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within/ Aki's Dream (Dr. Aki Ross)
Street Fighter/ Street Fighter the Movie[VG] (Chun-Li Zang)
Vanishing Son II / Vanishing Son IV (Mai)
StarQuest aka Terminal Voyage aka Star Voyager (Han)

Check out..
Ming-Na's Official Site
Ming-Na on Twitter
Other actress to play Fa Mulan:
Lea Salonga performed all of Mulan's singing to Ming's voice acting in the various Mulan films.
Other actresses to play Chun-Li include:
Kristen Kreuk in Street Fighter: the Legend of Chun-Li
Chingmy Yau in Future Cops
(and, no, I'm not going to list all the actresses who did voice work for Chun-Li's anime and video game appearances. You can Google them...)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Jessica Alba's lost tv series...Now on DVD!

The first tv series starring a young (and incredibly-cute) Jessica Marie Alba (usually in a swimsuit) is finally on DVD!
Flipper: the New Adventures: Season 1 is now available as one of MGM-TV's "Manufacture on Demand" DVDs for movies and tv series that MGM feels wouldn't sell as mass-market items, but could sell as limited-release DVD-R releases (like the Warner Archive dvds).
Hopefully, if it sells well enough, MGM might issue a blu-ray version...
Note: This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
This disc is expected to play back in DVD Video \"play only\" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.
Interestingly, the series has been released in Japan as a mass market item (albeit as half-season sets...)
I am ordering the MoD set, but I'm also looking into getting the Japanese sets (used, if possible), since I have a multi-region player which can handle the Region 2 dvds.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas

Another singer / actress with several genre credits, and a fair number of other film / tv appearances as well.
Ashanti is a superb soprano, and a competent actress, with an enthusiasm for action stunts.
Her genre credits include...
Resident Evil: Extinction(Betty)
Muppets' Wizard of Oz(Dorothy Gale)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer "First Date" (Lissa)

Check out...
AshantiMusic
Ashanti Daily (FanSite)
Other actresses to play Dorothy Gale include...
Tin Man: Grace Wheeler, Zooey Deschanel, Alexis Llewellen, Rachel Patee (Dorothy at various ages)
The Dreamer of Oz: Courtney Barilla (Dorothy Gale / Dorothy Leslie Gage [the real-life inspiration for the character])
Return to Oz(1985): Fairuza Balk
The Wiz: Diana Ross
The Wiz (Broadway): Stephanie Mills
Journey Back to Oz; Liza Minelli (daughter of Judy Garland)
Off to See the Wizard: June Foray
Return to Oz(1964) Susan Conway
The Wizard of Oz (1939) / Lux Radio Theatre "Wizard of Oz": Judy Garland
The Land of Oz aka The Scarecrow of Oz: Maryeruth Boone
The Wizard of Oz(1925): Dorothy Dwan
Dorothy and the Scarecrow of Oz: Marcia Moore
The Wizard of Oz(1910): Bebe Daniels

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Leonor Varela Palma

Leonor Varela and her family fled her native Chile when she was a child due to political oppression.
The family moved constantly, from Costa Rica to Germany to the USA and, finally, to France, where she studied acting and began her performing career doing minor roles in film and tv.
Her big break came as the title character in the mini-series Cleopatra.
Since then, Leonor's primarily played femme fatale / exotic beauty types with the occasional character role.
Trivia:
She was briefly engaged to Cleopatra co-star (and genre actor) Billy Zane.
Leonor is a committed environmental activist who has donated both her name value / celebrity status and time to WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), Global Green USA, Oceana (Osean Conservation Group) and Centro Ballena Azúl (Chile).
She's multi-lingual, fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian.
Genre appearances include...
MonsterWolf (Maria)
Human Target(Maria Gellego)
Sleep Dealer(Luz Martínez)
Hell Ride(Nada)
Curse of King Tut's Tomb(Dr Azelia Barakat)
E-Ring "Pilot"
Jeremiah (Judith)
StarGate Atlantis(Chaya Sar)
Blade II(Nyssa Damaskinos)

Check out...
Leonor's Official WebSite
Other actresses to play Cleopatra include...
There are 87 different listings here for various movie / tv Cleopatras based on the historical figure.
(And that doesn't count similarly-named characters like the title character of Cleopatra 2525 or Cleopatra Jones!)