Lani Minella (born July 28, 1950) is an American voice actress and talent director who remains prominent to this day, with over 450 roles to her name. From her start in 1968, she's not only become a prominent name in the voice acting industry, but she's also grown successful enough to start her own company, AudioGodz. She sports a very wide vocal range (four octaves, almost unlimited accents, and both male and female characters), and states that she's willing to work whatever job she's hired on for, from video games and animation to narration, to even IVR recordings.
Her IMDB profile is here,
and her Voice123 profile is here.
Characters voiced by Lani Minella
- 40 Winks - Ruff, Tumble, Mother
- Alien: Resurrection - Ellen L. Ripley
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Girl, Mother, Clarice, Justine
- Astal - All characters
- Awesomenauts - Nibbs, Ksenia
- Backyard Sports - Sunny Day, Vinny the Gooch, Earl Grey and other Backyard Kids (Baseball 2003 and Soccer 2004)
- Blue Stinger - Janine King
- Blood II: The Chosen - Ophelia, Gabriella
- Borderlands - Steele
- Bubsy 3D - Bubsy
- Burn Up! Excess - Maya Jingu
- Darksiders - Silitha, Tiamat
- Dawn of War - The Tyranid Hive Mind
- Diablo - Adria the Witch, Wirt
- Diablo II - Andariel, Blood Raven
- Drakan - Rynn
- Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes - Jane, Additional Voices
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Irileth, various other female dark elves
- Evil Zone - Alty Al Lazel, Midori Himeno, Ihadulca
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Micaiah, Rolf, Mia
- Frogger: The Great Quest - Fairy Frog Mother
- Half-Life: Decay - Dr. Colette Green
- Illbleed - Eriko Christy
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Lucia von Bardas
- Mass Effect 3 - Eve
- MediEvil (PS4 Remake) - Narrator
- The Nancy Drew video games - Nancy Drew
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Larry, Morton, Wendy and Lemmy.
- Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSX) - Maya Amano
- The Professor Layton series - Luke Triton note
- Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Juno Markev
- S.W.A.T. Global Strike Team - Sniper Lee
- Shadowman - Mama Nettie
- Super Mario 3D Land - Pom Pom
- Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Battle, Sonic Heroes - Rouge the Bat, Omochao
- Sonic Adventure - Station Square Announcer and the voice that says "Welcome to Twinkle Park!"
- Sonic Shuffle - Void
- Soul Calibur III and onwards - Ivy
- Star Trek Online - At least a dozen roles, including Admiral T'nae, Subcommander Mivek, Commander Phillipa Matthias, Lieutenant Jhu Terel, Lt. JG B'Elanna Torres (in a cutscene), and the Federation ship's computer (following Majel Barrett's death).
- Strider (2014) - Nang Pooh, Xi Wang Mu
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Pit, Lucas, Lyn
- Subnautica - Sea Emperor
- Twisted Metal 4 - Zanita Corbett, Neg Jones
- World of Warcraft - Succubus, Banshee, Harpy, Stormcaller Mylra, Zaela, Panda Wraith, a Female Tuskarr, a Geist, a Female Death Knight, Herald Volazj, Brann Bronzebeard (Prior 3.1), Sindragosa
- XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - The Chosen Assassin
Tropes applying to Lani Minella:
- Contralto of Danger: As demonstrated with Ivy, "Eve" and the Tyranid Hive Mind. Is worth to notice that "Eve" is the only Krogan character in the game who's VA didn't need an audio filter.
- Cool Old Lady: Reading through or watching interviews online gives one the impression that she can mix her work with a little joking now and then. Even her Voice123 profile states her other skills as 'Writing, Directing, Casting, Producer, Designer, Studio production and sound design, piano, art, horticulture, animal lover and environmentally friendly person with a vast repertoire and pile of jokes'.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Among others, Wirt.
- Dawson Casting: Given her vocal range, she can play it straight, avert it, subvert it, avert it completely, and exaggerate this trope depending on the role. Listen to the demonstration close to the end of this interview.
- Fake Nationality: She's the official voice of Ivy Valentine and Luke (US dub), both of whom are Brits. Note that she is not British herself.
- Guttural Growler: Her voice for the Tyranid Hive Mind, so much so that some players thought it was voiced by a man. See her go from a normal tone to the Hive Mind's voice in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Voice Actors video at 4 minutes.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She uses some of her time outside the recording booth to adopt and care for rescue cats.
- Large Ham: She is perfectly capable of voicing a character that's hungry for some backdrops. Bonus points if they just happen to be well-written on top of that.
- Talking to Herself: Quite a few of her voice acting credits have more than one voice attached to them.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her range makes this a given, but still, considering some of the roles she's done can provoke people to think, "That voice came out of her?" Nancy Drew fans were especially surprised.
- Woman of a Thousand Voices: According to her Voice123 profile, the range of voices she can perform guarantee that she will never, ever get typecast in one particular style. Compare, for example, her voicework for Wirt from Diablo to her voiceovers for Sindel from Mortal Kombat.
