Marisha Ray is an American voice actress, host, and producer famous for the live-action game “Critical Role”. She was born on 10 May 1989 and is best known for her roles as herself, and the characters Keyleth and Beauregard on the Dungeons & Dragons web series “Critical Role”. Marisha has also voiced video game characters like Margaret in “Persona 4 Arena Ultimax” and “Persona Q”, Laura S. Arseid in “The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel” series, and Miranda in “Metal Gear: Survive”.
She is from an extended family of Louisville farmers. Her father also sells truck tyres, while her mother is a dog groomer. The actress began acting at a young age at the Actors Theater of Louisville, and she graduated in 2007 from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she studied acting.
Niches are a familiar thing in the arts and entertainment, and rightly so. For an industry so saturated with talent and numbers, it so often happens that people find or create a niche for themselves. In Marisha’s case, she chose the not so well-hyped scene that is live-action as her niche. While there is a stereotype that says beautiful women generally don’t play RPGs (Role Playing Games), Marisha has been one of the exceptions.
Not only is Marisha an exception, but she has also carved a niche for herself in the genre, with an impressive CV that speaks for itself. In the next few minutes, you will be learning more about her career and some lesser-known facts about her. First, here are ten interesting facts about Marisha Ray.
10 facts about Marisha Ray
- Though she is now mostly known for live-action, Marisha got her first role when she was cast in the short film “Angie”. Thereafter, she moved to Los Angeles in the year 2008 to fully pursue her career.
- 2010 and 2011 were the initial productive years of her career when she appeared in two episodes of the television series “Balls”, which propelled her career, and in 2012 she got an opportunity to play herself in 12 episodes of “The Grind”.
- In 2012, Marisha tried her hands at production. She produced a Batgirl fan series titled “Batgirl: Spoiled”, in which she played the titular character.
- Marisha Ray is married to her colleague Matt Mercer who is the Dungeon Master in the show Critical Role, and they tied the knot on 21 October 2017.
- She became the creative director of Greek and Sundry in June 2017, and in 2018, she gave up this position after becoming the creative director for Critical Role Productions.
- In 2016, she did voiceovers for “The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II”, “Fire Emblem: Fates” and “Lego Marvel’s Avengers”.
- Marisha is also a stunt performer, and she’s proficient in using several weapons listed in her bio, such as swords and a staff.
- She starred in and wrote some episodes of a horror web series “8.13”, and it was awarded Best Writing in a Horror Series by the LA Webfest Awards.
- Marisha currently holds the top attendance record out of the main cast members for the main campaigns on “Critical Role”. Liam O’Brien is close behind her, with two episodes less.
- As of June 2021, Marisha has a net worth of $300,000.
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Early life and education
There is limited information about Marisha’s childhood and background. She was born and raised in Louisville, USA, to a truck seller father and dog groomer mother. She completed her basic education in her hometown and graduated in 2007 from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Marisha was interested in acting from her childhood. She started acting at the age of 12 in Theatres of Louisville. There she learned acting, and after that, at the age of 19, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career.
Career
Marisha arrived in LA during the Writers Guild of America strike happening between 2007 and 2008. While finding acting gigs, she started political canvassing for the 2008 presidential election. After the polls came to an end, she took up street performing on Hollywood Boulevard. She did tap-dancing for a short time before moving to full-time busking. Marisha even dressed up as a Tinkerbell for three years.
Additionally, she produced a Batgirl fan series in 2012 titled “Batgirl: Spoiled”, in which she played the titular character. Things gradually began to look up after that.
Marisha Ray Critical Role – Keyleth
In 2015, she began co-starring in the web series Critical Role, on which she joins fellow voice actors in playing Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. Her character for the first campaign was Keyleth, a half-elf druid. As a part of getting into her character, she compiled a playlist representing Keyleth’s journey.
Keyleth is a half-elf druid in the group Vox Machina and current headmaster of the Air Ashari, a position that grants her the title Voice of the Tempest. She is depicted with freckles on her nose and cheeks in some official material. Also, she’s seldom seen without her signature “antlers”, a druidic circlet.
In Critical Role, Keyleth and several other members of Vox Machina fell into a subterranean river system below Emon, where they encountered an aboleth. She almost died after turning into a shark to fight it in the water, as the aboleth created a slime that tainted the water and pulled the oxygen out of it, causing her to suffocate.
Beauregard in Critical Role
Marisha played Beauregard Lionett in the second campaign of Critical Role between January 2018 and June 2021. Beauregard is a human monk of the Cobalt Soul, a young woman of short to average height with a well-defined muscular body. Beauregard has blue eyes, a medium-brown skin tone, and long dark brown hair shaved into an undercut and tied as a topknot, with a strand hanging to one side of her face. She is described as a simple girl with simple needs, and her attitude towards other people can be summed up as “do whatever you want, but if it f---s with my s--t, we’re going to have issues.”
Other credits
Aside’s her RPG repertoire, Marisha Ray also has a thriving voice-acting career. She has voiced many famous animations and video game characters over the years. Below is a complete chart of her voice acting resumé.
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Source: Wikipedia
Personal life
Not much of Ray’s life is public knowledge as she leads a very private life. It is, however, known that she has been married for almost four years now. Ray is happily married to Matthew Mercer, her fellow voice actor and a cast member of Critical Role. She revealed her engagement to Matthew on 14 October 2016. The couple tied the knot on 21 October 2017 in a private ceremony that close friends and relatives attended.
Matthew Mercer – movies and TV shows
Born 29 June 1982, Mercer is an American voice actor. He is best known for his work with Studiopolis, Viz Media, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, Funimation, and NYAV Post in anime, cartoons, and video games.
Matthew has featured in so many animes, cartoons, and video games that it is almost impossible for any avid anime lover or gamer to have not come across a character he has played more than once. His most notable work includes characters in the anime films “Dragon Ball Super”, “Kill la Kill”, “One Piece”, “Sailor Moon”, “Attack on the Titan: Junior High”, “Hunter x Hunter”, “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations”, “Ultraman”, and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”.
Mercer has also contributed to over 70 video games, with the most notable being his work in “Batman: Arkham Knight”, “Arkham Origins and The Enemy Within”, “Fire Emblem: Fates”, “Heroes”, “Awakening”, “Persona 4 and 5”, and “Xenoblade Chronicles X”.
In addition to these, he has featured in the following cartoons “Beware the Batman”, “DC Super Friends”, “Wabbit”, “Regular Show”, “Justice Society: World War II”, “Avengers Assemble”, “Marvel’s Spider-Man”, “Zak Storm”, and “Blood of Zeus”.
Marisha Ray net worth
As of June 2021, Marisha has a net worth of $300,000. Considering her body of work and active years, this would seem like a small amount, however, as stated earlier, her life is mostly kept private, so, maybe there is more that isn’t known about her finances.
Conclusion
Just like her partner, Marisha Ray found her niche and applied pressure. Today, she is one of the most famous and successful RPG and live-action stars around. There is no gainsaying the fact that she and her kind are an inspiration to a generation of budding professionals in the genre.
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