I’m Rebecca Forstadt and I’ve been a voice-actress since 1981. Wow! How time flies! I’m best known for my young girl voices in the English versions of hundreds of Japanese anime cartoons but I’ve also done my share of commercials, animation, video games, audiobooks, and ADR.
I’m a long time member of SAG-AFTRA and am based in Los Angeles. Contact me at rebecca@rebeccaforstadt.com
My back story
I started out as an actor by doing theatre in high school and college. My first paid gig was performing melodramas at Knott’s Berry Farm for 3 years, 3-6 shows per day. Steve Martin and Dean Jones as well as other notable names worked there over the years.
I came to Los Angeles in the mid-70s to pursue a career as an actress and to study and hone my craft. Not long after, I took a detour and did wardrobe for shows like The White Shadow, Hill Street Blues, and Blake Edward’s SOB.
But my heart was in acting so I quit my well-paying, incredibly wonderful job to be in front of the camera instead of behind it. In retrospect, that was probably a dumb move.
I did starred in two films
The first was called Mugsy’s Girls, renamed Delta Pi. My role was a nerdy sorority girl who was best friends with singer Laura Branigan. Eddie Deezen was my boyfriend and the great Ruth Gordon played our housemother. To earn money for our sorority, we mud and whipped cream wrestled with some of the GLOW girls.
The second film I starred in was called Round Numbers. I played a receptionist in a fancy health spa. It also starred Kate Mulgrew, Samantha Egger, and Shani Wallis.
During the 1980s, I was awarded 2 Outstanding performance nods from the Hollywood Dramalogue for lead roles in Ionesco’s Tales, with Eugene Ionesco in residence, and Leonce and Lena both at Stages in Hollywood.
How I got into voice-overs
I was born with a child-like voice that never grew up. While perusing Dramalogue (now Backstage West) I saw an ad for adult women to play kid voices at a sound studio on the Sunset Strip. It turned out they were dubbing foreign films and cartoons mostly from Japan.
It was a perfect fit for me and I worked steadily for decades voicing young girls, some young boys, various creatures, and even a few monsters. I became infamous doing the role of Minmei in the series Robotech which celebrated its 35th anniversary.
I also have a life
In addition to working as a voice actress, I am the mom of two adult children and a chihuahua, am an avid traveler and started a side career as a blogger and social influencer. Much to my surprise, I discovered I have a techy side and learned to build websites. I like to help other voice-over actors and oldsters like myself to set up their sites.
My life has had a few bumps
For those who have the desire to become actors or voice-over artists, life can derail you at times. I lost my husband of 23 years to cancer in 2001, lost my boyfriend of 15 years to cancer in 2020, had children to take care of, (which is my greatest accomplishment) experienced financial downturns, and got older (not always welcome in Hollywood)
Still, life is good. You can’t let adversity stress you out or bring you down. People will forget you exist, the younger generation will start taking your roles, you’ll experience rejection, but as long as you have other interests and pursuits in life, you will survive and enjoy what life has in store.