GalaxyCon in downtown Raleigh this week brings a cavalcade of pop culture icons, comic book artists and voice actors.
Among that group is Cristina Vee Valenzuela, known professionally as “Cristina Vee.” This is Vee’s second time at GalaxyCon Raleigh, and she said she hoped to see more of the city this time.
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“I didn’t get to see much of the city, so I hoping that I have time to check out the sites,” she said.
Vee is a voice actor and professional singer known for providing voices for Sailor Mars in the iconic 80s and 90s anime, “Sailor Moon,” and as Ladybug in the French-produced cartoon, “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.”
Vee said her career inspiration was from Disney movies.
“I would watch them so many times … and I wanted to do the voices. So I would mute them, and that would be the way I would watch them by doing the voices out loud,” she said. “That’s been my whole life … It feels like it was meant to be.”
Vee said she was 12 years old when she started voice acting. She said while she didn’t experience rejection early on, she did have plenty of moments of doubt and rejection.
“You just go through it, you feel the rejection, and after a while, it doesn’t [sting],” she said. “Once you face it, it’s not so bad … It’s just part of it. Just experiencing it and moving on.”
While she did experience rejection, one of her biggest roles was voicing acting in the original Sailor Moon anime and its reboot, “Sailor Moon: Crystal.”
“I was a Sailor Moon kid growing up. I loved watching the dub on TV religiously … so when I found out that I was auditioning, I cried,” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I’m so lucky that I made it this far to audition for this iconic show.’”
Vee said when she signed on to redub the iconic 80s/90s anime, she had to keep it very secret and even had a non-disclosure agreement.
“It was such a strange experience because it was so hush-hush that I didn’t know who I was voicing until I was in the booth. I didn’t know who I was; I just knew I was in it,” she said.
Vee didn’t even know who her costars were until they were all brought to a panel and revealed the news.
“We found out who the other cast members were at the reveal panel of Anime Expo [2014], so when Amanda [Miller] showed up in green, and Cheremi [Leigh] showed up in orange … that’s how we found out,” she said. “That was a very unique experience for me. Nothing was more built up and exciting for me than that.”
Miraculous started in 2015 and has become widely celebrated for its multicultural representation and take on female superheroes. Nickelodeon syndicated the show for American audiences and tabbed Vee to voice one of the titular heroes.
Vee said she loves how much people have attached to the cartoon and that it continues to inspire people, including people coming dressed as LadyBug to her booths at various conventions.
"It’s pretty insane in the best way,” she said. “I feel like the trend is you do the show, and then it slowly builds up in popularity over time … It’s a dream role for me,” she said. "I’ve never had that level of mainstream before. It’s pretty fun to see, and it just keeps growing.”
Vee said her boyfriend asks people if they like Ladybug when they’re out in public, including at Disneyland.
“There was a girl, and she was a little scared to get on the Soaring Over California ride, so he was like, ‘Hey, do you like Ladybug?’ She said, ‘I love Lady Bug,’ So then he said, 'Well, you’re going on the ride with Ladybug if that makes you feel better,’” she said. “It was really sweet.”
The consumption of animated content from Japan has changed within the last 15 years, in large part due to more accessibility to the content. Hulu now offers anime shows as part of its programming; Crunchyroll allows people to stream a wide range of anime from Japan in original Japanese audio or a localized dub version.
As a fan and voice actress of anime, Vee has seen it grow in popularity.
“Now, there’s a generation of voice actors who grew up the same way I did: Loving voice-over,” she said. “I feel like you can hear in their performances. They know how much this work affects other people. They want to do the best, and I feel like that’s a very new thing in the U.S.”
In addition to being a voice actress, Vee is a professional singer and showcases her vocal range on several video game cover songs on various YouTube channels and her own.
Vee said professional singing and voice acting started roughly around the same time but was rooted in voice acting.
“I was already doing voice-over, and then I added the singing. That was, kind of, my way to practice,” Vee said. “I had success with it in school, and it grew from there.”
Neither career came without complications. In 2023, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike against Hollywood. The strike impacted several guests during the 2023 GalaxyCon convention in Raleigh, as many weren’t allowed to speak on their projects.
Vee said not all voice actors were affected by the strike, and she was able to work on her projects but supported the actors who were striking. While both groups have agreed to new labor contracts with Hollywood producers, she said it had a big impact on actors and writers not working for so long.
“It had a big effect on actors here not being able to work for so long. So I’m hopeful everything picks up again and gets back to normal again,” she said.
Vee will be at the convention through Sunday. You can find single-day tickets for the convention here.