Taliesin Jaffe is an American actor, director, and screenwriter with many acting and voice dubbing appearances under his belt. Jaffe made his on-screen debut at the age of six in the comedy film “Mr. Mom” before his career took off, and he became one of the most highly sought-after child actors in the business.
For whatever reason, Jaffe took a 10-year break from acting, but when he made his return, he turned to voice acting, at which he is currently excelling. Now, and for the last few years, Jaffe has been one of the main characters of the “Critical Role” TV show, which has seen him amass fans, money, and a healthy dose of enjoyment in what he does.
Jaffe was born with acting in his blood as his parents are Nina Axelrod and Robert Jaffe, themselves celebrated actors who excelled at their craft. There was practically no way for Taliesin to escape acting, considering his background.
However, the actor has put his own spin on it. In addition to writing, Jaffe has some screenwriting credits to his name as he has contributed to the script of more than a few anime productions.
Top 10 facts about Taliesin Jaffe
- Taliesin Jaffe was born on 19 January 1977 and is now 44 years old in 2021.
- He began his career as a child actor before making the transition to voice acting.
- Taliesin Jaffe is openly bisexual, as he revealed to the public in 2017.
- As a child actor, Jaffe was one of the most sought after following his film debut in the comedy “Mr. Mom”.
- Taliesin Jaffe height is recorded as 160 cm or 5 feet and 3 inches (5’3″).
- For his work in voice acting, Jaffe has won several awards.
- Not only does he voice several roles in “Critical Role”, but he is also a co-founder of the show.
- Jaffe has only been linked to one relationship, a female go-go dancer whose picture he shared on Instagram in 2015.
- Taliesin Jaffe officiated fellow “Critical Role” actors Matthew Mercer and Marisha Ray’s wedding.
- Jaffe’s net worth is estimated to be one million dollars ($1 million).
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Early life
Taliesin Jaffe was born on 19 January 1977 in Los Angeles, California, to Nina Axelrod and Robert Jaffe as Taliesin Alexrod Jaffe. For those who didn’t notice it, Taliesin has both his mother’s and father’s surnames. His grandfather is the famous screenwriter George Axelrod.
His mother, Nina Axelrod, appeared in films in the 1970s and early 1980s. She featured in “Roller Boogie” (1979), “Motel Hell” (1980), “Time Walker” (1982), “Cross Country” (1983), and “Critters 3” (1991).
His father, Robert Jaffe, is also a film producer, actor, and screenwriter. He has worked on films such as “Motel Hell” (1980), “Nightflyers” (1987), and “Nightflyers” (2018), and is known for appearing in the films “Fuzz” (1972), “The Magnificent Seven Ride!” (1972), and “Creature” (1985).
Jaffe can trace his artistic talents to relatives who are older than even his parents. His paternal grandfather is Herb Jaffe, an independent film producer. His maternal grandfather was George Axelrod, a screenwriter, producer, playwright, and film director.
Bring all of these things together, and it is easy to see how Jaffe came by his artistic talents, which he has used very well. Jaffe has two brothers and a sister of whom nothing is known.
When he was a child, he worked as a child actor before going on a 10-year break. The actor then returned to Hollywood as a voice actor for anime films and TV shows.
Nothing is known about how he grew up or what high school he attended, but he did reveal that he went by his middle name, Zabrina, when he was in high school. Many of his schoolmates also considered him odd because of his long hair, name, and stature.
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Career
Taliesen Jaffe’s career started when he was six years old, thanks to the family of filmmakers he grew up with. He played a young child in the 1984 comedy film “Mr. Mom”, where he was the middle child in the fictional family.
After this, Jaffe made his television debut in the fifth season of the NBC TV Series “The Facts of Life”. In 1985, he made a splash in the industry after he appeared alongside Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson in the adventure comedy film “Explorers”. After this project, Jaffe became one of the most sought-after child actors in the industry.
In 1989, he joined the cast of the sitcom “She’s the Sheriff”, playing the character of Kenny Granger. Although the show ended a year later, he still made an impact as he appeared in up to 45 episodes. After this, he took a 20-year break from live-action roles.
After a ten-year break from acting, Jaffe returned to start working as a voice actor for anime productions. His debut anime voice acting role was that of Fei-Oh in the sequel “3×3 Eyes: Legend of the Divine Demon”.
Between 2005 and 2006, Jaffe also voiced the character of Preta Ghoul in “Black Cat”. He has also lent his voice to some high profile productions, including 2001’s “Helsing”, 2018’s “Spiderman”, “Hellsing Ultimate”, “Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods”, “One Piece”, “Fairy Tail”, “Fairy Tale the Movie: Phoenix Priestess”, and so many others.
His most high-profile and most successful role to date is on the widely regarded show “Critical Role”, which he has been a part of since 2015. “Critical Role” is a weekly live show in which a group of professional voice actors get together to play the video game “Dungeons of Dragons”. So much has grown from this show, especially as Amazon Studios recently purchased streaming rights to their animated series “The Legend of Vox Machina”.
Even as Taliesin Jaffe is incredibly talented at voice acting, it is not the only thing he excels at. He also has several credits in the capacity of screenwriter and director, thanks to those artistic genes that run in his blood.
Jaffe was the head writer of the dubbed 1992 direct to video anime film “Spirit of Wonder: China-san no yûutsu”. Four years later, he would reprise this role in another direct-to-video anime film “Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko”.
After the success of both films, he got the opportunity to work on a slew of other projects, including “Nazca” (1998), “Hellsing” (2001-02), “R.O.D the TV” (2003-04), “Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad” (2004-05), “Monster” (2004-05), “Hell Girl” (2005-06), “Romeo x Juliet” (2007), “Hellsing Ultimate” (2006-08), and “Chaotic Awesome” (2014).
He is also a director, and he made his voice directing debut in 2015 with the anime film “Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven”.
Not only does he do all of this and excel, but he has also lent his voice to several of your favourite video games. These include “Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed”, “Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven”, “Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds”, and several others.
Taliesen Jaffe has also won several awards for his acting work, receiving two Young Artist Awards for his roles in “Child’s Cry” and ‘The Facts of Life”. He has also been nominated for three additional Young Artist Awards and a BTVA Anime Dub Movie/Special Voice Acting Award for his role in “Fairy Tail: Priestess of the Phoenix”.
Taliesin Jaffe on Critical Role
Taliesen Jaffe plays the character of Caduceus Clay in “Critical Role”. Before that, he voiced the character of Percival De Rolo and then Mollymauk Tealeaf.
Jaffe, one of the co-founders of the show, was one of the more experienced members when it first started. As such, during the first few episodes, he was tasked with keeping the other members alive.
He is often referred to as the Anti-Wheaton by other group members because he often rolls critical successes.
“Critical Role” has grown into such a successful endeavour that in 2015, the show broke away from Geek and Sundry, which used to host them, and migrated to their own official Twitch and YouTube channels. In 2019, they completed the migration and were in charge of their content.
In 2019, they started a Kickstarter campaign to try to raise funds for a 22-minute animation special. However, over a month later, when the campaign closed, they had raised over 11 million dollars ($11 million).
Amazon Studios acquired their animated show, which by now had turned into an animated series, and commissioned a second season of the show. It was scheduled for release in June 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic.
Personal life
Taliesen Jaffe’s personal life is considered private, at least to him, and he has gone to great lengths to keep it that way. In February 2015, Jaffe shared a picture of the silhouette of a woman on his Instagram page. The picture got fans buzzing, wondering who the mystery woman was.
Fans quickly surmised that the woman in question was his girlfriend, while Jaffe himself came out to say that she was a go-go dancer at a nightclub. It is unclear if the relationship progressed or not, but the actor, director and screenwriter made an announcement in 2017 concerning his sex life.
In 2017, Taliesen Jaffe announced that he is bisexual on “The Wednesday Show”, a show about comics that he hosts with Amy Dallen and Matt Key.
During a special LGBTQ+ episode, Dallen said that she is the B in LGBTQ. Jaffe asked if they were really doing this, to which Dallen replied in the positive, and he said that he is also bisexual. Since then, nothing has been heard of this actor’s romantic relationships.
Jaffe also officiated fellow “Critical Role” actors Matthew Mercer and Marisha ray’s wedding.
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Taliesin Jaffe net worth
Considering all that he has achieved, Taliesen Jaffe net worth is relatively small. He has over 163 acting credits to his name and quite a few directing and video game voice acting in his CV. He is also a co-founder of “Critical Role”, which branched out of Geek and Foundry a few years ago to start their own production company. This new production company recently signed a deal with the streaming giant Amazon Studios.
However, his net worth has been listed as 1 million dollars ($1 million). Of course, since there is no way to confirm that this value is correct, it could be false, and his actual net worth could be higher or lower than that.
Conclusion
Taliesen Jaffe is an incredibly talented actor who got his start in the world of entertainment at the tender age of six but still managed to rise to the top of the industry.
He has contributed to the entertainment industry in several ways: as an actor, a voice actor, director, screenwriter, and co-founder of “Critical Role”. His brilliance seems eternal, and we’re sure that fans can’t wait to see what next he brings this magic to.
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