Voice actors are sometimes not given enough credit for what they bring to our favorite shows. Some of our most treasured memories are from sitting in front of the TV and watching cartoons, listening to the wacky and downright, well, cartoonish voices on Saturday morning, after school on the Disney Channel, or late into the evening on Nick at Night. The characters’ voices stay with us. However, one set of vocal cords in particular has stood out among the rest: Tara Strong.
Tara Strong has been doing voice work for a very long time. She has over 600 credits to her name and the chances that you’ve heard her voice are almost 100% if you love television as much as we do. Right now, you can hear the distinct dulcet sounds of Strong’s work on Loki as Miss Minutes, the record keeper and guide of the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, on the Disney+ series starring Tom Hiddleston in the titular role as the God of Mischief and Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) mercurial brother in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has been confirmed that Strong will be returning for the second season of the show.
Tara Strong Was Destined for Show Business Long Before Voicing Miss Minutes in ‘Loki’
Strong always knew she had the itch and wanted to be in show business. As she shared in an interview with Variety in 2022, she grew up watching cartoons like The Smurfs and The Flintstones and dreamed of becoming a performer. Growing up, she says that she loved to sing, dance, and act with her sister and other family members. She started voicing commercial gigs at the tender age of 13 and would eventually join the renowned Canadian improv troupe Second City in search of what her niche could be within the industry. Eventually, it was clear that her soothing, easy-on-the-ear tones were going to be her best way to have a career in the entertainment business. Since then, she hasn’t looked back, voicing some of the most memorable characters in the biggest cartoons, video games, and websites over the last 30+ years. Her career boasts a wide array of roles including Hello Kitty in Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater (which was one of her first major roles in 1987), Timmy Turner in Fairly Oddparents, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in The New Batman, Dil Pickles and Timmy McNulty in Rugrats, Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls, Raven in Teen Titans, and Harley Quinn in several iterations of the D.C. comic book cartoons. When we say you’ve probably heard her voice at least once in your life, we weren’t lying.
Tara Strong Delivers Her Most Unique Performance Yet As ‘Loki’s Miss Minutes
In an interview with Collider, Strong said she tried to tap into the humanity of Miss Minutes. Voicing an anthropomorphic clock was different from anything she had done before, and so she decided on giving Miss Minutes a distinct Southern drawl. Probably the most telling line of her distinct accent can be heard when she says, “I’m Miss Minutes, and it’s my job to catch you up before you stand trial for your crimes!” The fact that the Southern accent sounds so genuine is a testament to Strong, whose talents are so boundless that taking on a particular accent so different from the sounds she grew up hearing in Canada shows enormous versatility. Listening to Miss Minutes give Loki an instructional guide to his new predicament outside the Time Variance in Episode 1 of Season 1, “Glorious Purpose,” is so very charming. The irony of her soft and genteel voice describing a rigid, unvarying, and almost Draconian bureaucratic agency is a master stroke in juxtaposition. You would expect Miss Minutes to be the face of fast food chain restaurants across the Southern states like Dairy Queen or Carl’s Jr. It’s unique in that it isn’t a twist on one of Strong’s previous voices or an amalgam of some of the other characters she’s done. Miss Minutes is a unique voice and entity unto itself, and we’re guessing that Strong has never had to utter the phrase, “Hey, y’all!” in any of her past roles.
MCU and Twitter Fans Love Tara Strong’s Miss Minutes in ‘Loki’
In a 2021 interview on YouTube called “Beyond the Trailer” hosted by Grace Randolph, Strong spoke about how excited she was to see all the die-hard MCU fans and her followers on Twitter react positively and welcome her into the franchise by voicing Miss Minutes. Apparently, they were as excited as were just from the trailer alone for Season 1 of Loki. Strong admitted to being very conscientious about trying to bring something completely different to each of her voiceovers and noted that many fans immediately drew a parallel between Miss Minutes with the goofy and informative Mr. DNA in the 1993 blockbuster film Jurassic Park. In her 2022 Variety interview, she also spoke about voicing such powerful female characters like Harley Quinn and Batgirl. Strong admitted to being humbled saying, “It’s a tremendous responsibility and honor. I feel so very lucky that I’ve been able to provide voices for characters that empower girls, and friends of girls and women.”
Tara Strong Was Recognized for Her Voice Acting Career At the 2022 SOVAS
There aren’t many voice actors who will go down as being as influential in the animation and gaming entertainment industry as Tara Strong, and she has finally been recognized for her long and illustrious career. On December 15 of last year, the Society of Voice Arts & Sciences (SOVAS) honored the prolific voice actor with the Voice Arts Legacy Award for Arts and Entertainment in Burbank, California. It’s essentially the Cecile B. DeMille Award for voice talent and recognizes Strong’s four-decade career in animation and video games, providing the voice roles for animated series such as The New Batman Adventures, Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go!, Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, Xiaolin Showdown, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Ben 10. Fellow Canadian voice actor Cree Summers presented her with the award. There is no doubt that she has contributed as much or more than anyone in her field, producing so many of the most distinct and lasting voices of all time.
While you await Tara Strong’s return as Miss Minutes, read up on everything we know so far about Loki Season 2 here, including the release window, cast, and plot.
