Tress MacNeille

Born in Chicago, Tress MacNeille, grew up wanting to be a voice actress. Since she was 8 years old, shows like “Gerald McBoing-Boing,” “Beanie and Cecil,” “Felix the Cat,” “Woody Woodpecker,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” classic Warner Bros. cartoons and Disney features all inspired MacNeille to become the next voice-over artist. Of course, as a child, she went back and forth between careers and at one point wanted to be a smock-wearing artist who lived in a studio. Then, she decided to focus on more “practical” dreams like becoming a baker, a disc jockey, a doctor and a lawyer. Her hopes were low of making it into show business, but her patience and hard work paid off. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, and studied broadcasting. She eventually became a disc jockey, and also found herself working radio spots, TV demos, sound-alikes and industrial narrations. In 1979, she scored her first official animation job providing additional voices for “Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.” Soon after, her career took off, and she is now known for voicing Chip in “Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers,” Charlotte Pickles in “Rugrats,” Agnes Skinner and Dolph Starbeam in “The Simpsons” and even Daisy Duck in several different series. MacNeille counts herself lucky, as she’s gotten to work twice with Steven Spielberg; once as Babs Bunny in “Tiny Toon Adventures,” and another time as Dot Warner on “Animaniacs.” So far, she has been part of 275 projects. She also has experience with parodies. She played Lucille Ball in Weird Al Yankovic’s “Ricky” music video, and she also parodied Toni Basil’s popular song “Mickey.” She has found inspiration in all different areas of life and has said, “The characters that I do all come from people in my own life -- as well as the material I've stolen from my friends!” She is currently a California native.