Video game voice acting is more diverse than it has been in the past

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One of the focuses at this year’s GamesBeat Summit has been the visibility of women in the gaming industry. This includes the literal female voices gamers hear: One of the panels was titled “Women in video game voice acting.” Moderated by Julia Bianco Schoeffling of the Halp Network, the panel featured three voice actors and covered diversity, equity, and inclusion in the world of game voice acting.

All three panelists concurred that the climate of the voice acting world has changed. Though there are still efforts to be made in making the space diverse and inclusive, the industry as a whole has more diverse

Jennifer Hale, known for her work as Commander Shepard, Rivet, and Bastila Shan, said that when she first started, there were only certain roles available to her. “It’s been a phenomenal thing to watch the evolution of the consciousness of how stories are told, and how they’re presented, and what’s available to women. We stopped being just ‘girls’ and we’ve become people in stories. We’ve become main characters.”

Cissy Jones, known for her work as Delilah in Firewatch and Fury in Darksiders 3, adds the roles are more diverse. “There’s more than one woman now, in a game, whereas it used to be one woman and 20 dudes.” Anjali Bhimani, known for her roles as Symmetra in Overwatch and Rampart in Apex Legends, added that the industry is not just changing its views of gender diversity, but of background and personality as well. “We’re not only a woman, we’re all these different things… It feels like everybody is now seeing themselves onscreen or in the game in one way or another.”

Though Bhimani also raised the point that,