With numerous appearances across anime, television, and video games, Abby Trott is a voice you’ve almost certainly heard before. Anime fans will recognize her as the English voice of Momo Ayase in DAN DA DAN, Nezuko Kamado in Demon Slayer, or Yoh Asakura in the Shaman King remake. Video game fans will recognize her voice in titles like Marvel Rivals, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Persona 5 Royal, or as the singer of the English version of “Lifelight” in international versions of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Across all of these roles, Trott has lent incredible performances to incredible titles and had many successes.
Trott’s career has been storied and eventful and we were lucky enough to grab time to walk through it all with her. We talked about the early days of her career, the challenges of acting across many different mediums, some of her favorite moments from her anime roles, and different opportunities she sees for herself within the industry.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. This article contains minor spoilers for Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village Arc and DAN DA DAN.
Getting Started
To start our conversation, it made sense to go back in time to learn about how Trott came to work as a voice actor in the first place and what steps in her career stand out as key moments. She’s spoken quite a bit about the early days of her career living and working in Tokyo after majoring in theater. I asked about these early days and how they led to the anime medium specifically.
“You already know that I lived in Japan, it seems. And you already know that I started to do a little bit of voiceover in Japan, including character voices from the children’s shows I was doing, promos, textbook reading, narration, all that stuff. When I moved back to the States, I had the goal in mind specifically to pursue voiceover. So I started to look for opportunities online, and I stumbled upon a contest that was hosted by Bang Zoom! [Bang Zoom! Entertainment], the studio that does Demon Slayer, DAN DA DAN, and so many more fantastic anime, and I entered this contest. I almost didn’t because I was terrified. And it was a contest that was based on YouTube, which is even more terrifying to me, because people judge you very harshly when you put yourself out there. But I entered.
“There were two components to the contest, one was a talent video, and the other was a voiceover video. So I did a bunch of impressions for my voiceover video, and then for my talent video, I did some music stuff, just threw together a hodgepodge of things that I’m kind of good at. So I posted it, and I ended up moving on in the contest. And meanwhile, I had started to take voiceover classes in New York, but long story short, this contest took place over several months. I was flown to LA to do the finale of this — it was kind of like a reality show — and I ended up winning the contest. And that’s when I realized that most of the voiceover opportunities that I was looking for were out in LA. So I decided to move to LA, and I had made some connections via this contest with Bang Zoom! with some of the directors who were judges in the contest, and was able to kind of network from there. But it was a great starting point. And so Bang Zoom!, after that, continued to send me auditions once they knew that I was available.”
Trott emphasized the risk endemic to career moves like this, especially for her personally.
“It’s one of those things where you have to take risks in order to see returns. It’s important to take risks in your life, and I think the times that I’ve taken risks have been the biggest payoff for me. Moving to Japan was a phenomenal experience. That’s a risk. I had never been on an airplane before. I did not know what to expect. And then doing this contest, I took the risk. And even if I hadn’t won, I think that it would have been really beneficial to me to do something like this. I got to see everyone else’s videos that they posted, and I got to see how anime is dubbed. So the whole thing was a great experience.”
Different Mediums, Different Characters
Across that risk taking, Trott had touchpoints in a lot of different mediums. I asked whether she had a preference amongst those mediums or if any of them were particularly easy or difficult to get into and perform within.
“I don’t think I have a preference as an actor. It’s kind of whatever I get to do is a privilege. I will say that they’re fun in different ways, and they do require different skill sets. For example, pre-lay animation, meaning animation that is animated after you record the voiceover. That can be really fun because there’s a lot of freedom in it to make choices, and then the animators can then decide how to animate that. So, for example, in Carmen Sandiego, I was Ivy, and we got to record as a group.
So me and the actor who was playing my brother Zach, Mikey Hawley, we would banter back and forth, and a lot of that wasn’t in the script. And then the animators were later able to animate some of that banter, and it’s funny to include. So stuff like that for pre-lay animation. And then for dubbing, it’s nice because you usually have the finished picture, so you can see the anime as you’re working, and it informs a lot of your performance. So that’s kind of a cool part of dubbing.”
Those who have seen anime dubs will know about how these constraints force dialogue to sometimes get constructed in unexpected ways in order to match the pre-existing mouth flaps from the original Japanese. I wanted to know what Trott thought about the idea of animation making changes to allow dubs to have more freedom in dictating their own lines, taking a leaf out of pre-lay animation’s book.
“I think we try to as much as we can. You know, sometimes the flaps are not yet established, but it’s rare that you get to do the dubbing without flaps, mouth flaps, meaning you’re supposed to be trying to time your voice to the flaps, and it’s sometimes not quite finished. And so you’re just matching the length of the Japanese audio file if you have that. But within the constraints that we do have when we have finished flaps, we try as much as we can to fudge those. Engineers have a lot of control. Audio engineers can kind of manipulate the flaps to give us a little bit more freedom with the performance and try to, you know, make it a little more unique to the English localization. But it would be really cool if we had, you know, completely animated flaps to the English. That would open up a whole new can of worms.”
Similarly to the many mediums she’s worked across, there are also a large number of characters and character types across Trott’s anime and video game appearances with an equally large number of unique personalities. I asked whether she had a certain type of personality she preferred to voice or one that came especially easy.
“I think the easiest personality is something like Annette from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, basically because I’m a lot like Annette in real life. So I can I feel very natural performing her personality. But honestly, the more different from my personality in real life, the more fun it is for me. I keep bringing up Bugsnax as an example. When I talk about this with people — I don’t know if you’re familiar with the game Bugsnax, but I got to voice a bunch of these creatures. And creature voices are so much fun for me because obviously I’m not a creature, I’m a human. And so I get creative freedom to come up with whatever bizarre noise I think that this thing would make. And that is the most fun.”
“There’s so much creative freedom that it was it was easy and fun to come up with voices for those. And I had help, too, from the team, the director and the writers of the game were all pitching ideas. So we had a great time.”
Voicing Demon Slayer’s Nezuko Kamado
For those less familiar with Demon Slayer, Nezuko Kamado is a deuteragonist of the series and younger sister of protagonist Tanjiro Kamado. While originally a human, Nezuko was turned into a demon in the earliest moments of the series and much of Tanjiro’s motivation in the story is in finding ways to transform her back into a human. As a demon though, Nezuko doesn’t speak much. As of the end of the Swordsmith Village Arc, Nezuko has gained the ability to speak some simple words, but she communicates largely in grunts up until that point. I wanted to know how Trott approached a character that didn’t speak for whole seasons of a series.
“So we have established Nezuko’s human voice in Episode 1. But after that moment, she does sound very different because she has her various evolutions. You know, she can transform into a little chibi Nezuko where she’s a little more high pitched. She can transform into demon Nezuko with the horn form and the vines on her arms. And it’s a little more feral. The growling, you know, and even the maniacal laughter as she’s stomping Daki is very far removed from her human self. It’s been fun to see how she evolves. And now, as you mentioned, Nezuko is out in the sun, but she’s still not human. And she was able to conquer the sun. And in doing so, she’s now kind of able to be out in the sunlight and she’s learning to be kind of human again. And she has to learn to speak. So we hear her talk, but it’s kind of like baby talk. I don’t know if it’s that she’s learning to speak so much as she’s learning how to be in society.”
Trott noted that there isn’t much difficulty when it comes to going back and forth between essentially voicing different kinds of characters within one character. She had this to say when asked whether those transitions were hard.
“Not really with Nezuko. Also, Akari Kito, the original Japanese voice actor for Nezuko, really lays a fabulous groundwork for me to follow. And because the animation is there and it’s so phenomenal. The English, oftentimes, when we’re fighting, it closely shadows the Japanese. And then she really sets a great tone when Nezuko is speaking. And I just try to pick up on the tone that she’s established. And I run with that when I’m doing the English dub.”
One strong example of a moment where the animation, voice acting, and all other parts of the project came together was the end of the Swordsmith Village Arc, when Nezuko narrowly escapes death and conquers the sun. The beauty of this scene didn’t come by accident, and a lot of work went into making it incredible.
“That moment was so intense. So I knew that that part was coming up. I had that moment spoiled for me very early on, but I knew it was coming and I was excited about it. And I think when we were recording that season, every time I came in, I was like, ‘Is today the day?’ to Steve [Steve Staley], our director. And he’s like, ‘Not yet, not yet.’ And so finally, when it came to recording that scene, I had built up all this pressure in my mind. I wanted it to be good because it’s such a powerful moment that I wanted it to be as special and as good as it could be, really.
And so we recorded a few takes. We finagled it a little bit because, again, we’re working with the flaps that are already established for the mouth movements. And we got something that we were finally happy with. But it was hard to record that scene because Nezuko is essentially burning alive. And it was very emotional. I was tearing up recording that. You know, I’m in the booth screaming and burning. And after Nezuko is fine, inevitably, our director, Steve, was like, ‘OK, let’s move on.’ And I was just like in such a state after that. It took me a minute to come around because it’s such an intense scene to watch Nezuko essentially burning. And to go through that mentally as an actor is not exactly cupcakes and butterflies.”
Looking forward to the final arcs of Demon Slayer which will all be released as movies as opposed to seasons of anime, Trott expressed excitement at the cinematic format.
“I think that it’s going to be really epic because if you’ve seen Mugen Train [Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train], there’s something about watching anime in the theater on the big screen, especially Demon Slayer that has such gorgeous animation. And one of my favorite aspects of the show and the films also is the soundtrack. I think the music is so powerful. So I’m very excited to see three movies in the theater on the big screen with all the sound. It’s going to be amazing.”
On DAN DA DAN’s Breakout Season
DAN DA DAN completed a fantastic first season at the end of last year, ranking 2nd place in our Fall 2024 anime of the season rankings and 7th in our 2024 anime of the year rankings. When we last spoke with Trott about DAN DA DAN, only the first few episodes of the series had been released, with further episodes cementing the series’ ability to oscillate between action, comedy, and tragedy. I asked if her approach to the series changed as the scope of the series did.
“I had read the manga ahead so that I knew what was coming. I wanted to be as informed as possible when it came to Momo because she’s such a dynamic character. And she has so many aspects to her personality that I wanted to make sure came through. And one of those moments that I was looking forward to recording but also dreading because it’s so sad is the Acro-Silky episode [Episode 7]. Where at the end, Momo is devastated at the idea that Acro-Silky is just going to dissipate into the ether and has nowhere to go. And it’s just such a sad story. And she breaks down. She’s crying. She’s really upset by that. And I think that that’s the first time we really see Momo kind of break down like that. And it was a hard scene to record, but it’s one of my favorite moments because it’s also so relatable to me. Existential crisis. Yeah, I love that. And I love, like you said, how over the course of the show, we get to see all these aspects of Momo peek through. And I cannot wait for Season 2 to see more.”
Outside of that moment in Episode 7, Trott pointed to a tender moment between Momo and Okarun as one of her favorites of the season.
“Yeah, one of my other favorite moments — this is more because you can see the dynamic between Momo and Okarun — is when they’re in the water during the Nessie sequence. And they are — Momo is yelling at Okarun for basically, you know, being with Aira, I believe. And Okarun is not phased by Momo yelling in his face about this. And he doesn’t back down and he tells her like, it’s a misunderstanding and you need to chill out, basically. Like you need to listen. And that moment for me shows how good they are together. They’re so good for each other. And they’re still kids and they’re learning. And that’s a big learning moment for Momo.”
As we approach Season 2, Trott was careful not to spoil while indicating what she’s looking forward to most.
“I don’t know if I can say anything because I don’t want to spoil anything. I’m just going to say I’m looking forward to seeing more of Jiji.”
Closing Notes
Finishing up, I wanted to know about about a few other things from Abby Trott — namely whether she wanted her singing and anime career to come together, her opinion on the recent voice actor strikes for video games, and a couple of fun questions involving hypotheticals about the characters she’s voiced. On music and anime overlapping, Trott had this to say.
“You know, I do miss music. I barely play music anymore, which is sad. I just need to find more time to factor it into my life. I think voiceover took over as a main point of focus. And I’m lucky if I get to sing in character, like in Carmen Sandiego, Ivy got to sing. Some other shows I’ve done, I got to sing a little bit. But I do miss music a lot. And I’m hoping that in the future I can make more time to make it more a part of my life.”
I asked if there was any anime that she could see herself singing an opening for.
“Any anime, that would be awesome. That would be amazing. Yeah, I’m going to write an anime opening and just shop it around, we’ll see.”
As for upcoming anime she’d like to be in, Trott pointed to Witch Watch.
“When I went to Japan, I bought a few issues of Witch Watch, which is like super cute. I don’t know what part I would play, but it would be really cool to be in that show just because it’s adorable.”
On the AI-related video game strikes, Trott shared her thoughts on the of position of AI in the industry at large and what that means for voice actors.
“It’s a tricky one. I personally am not completely anti-AI, as a lot of people are, but I do feel like we need to be protected as artists from AI essentially stealing our work and taking advantage of us. And that goes for actors as well as visual artists. I know that AI can churn out an image, but it’s being fed artists’ work, and they’re not fairly compensated or credited. So it’s a problem. I don’t know how to fix that type of problem. But what we’re fighting for in the strike, we are currently trying to incorporate very reasonable demands, I think, that would protect us and enable us to keep working on these projects that we love so much. And I believe that actors, Ashley Birch recently spoke out about this too, they bring so much to a role. It is really an art form. And the fact that video game companies want to replace us with AI, it’s truly heartbreaking. And I get the idea that they want to save money. Who doesn’t want to save money? But I think that we need to figure out a way to work together and maybe incorporate some AI, but still make sure that the actors are credited for their work and are still able to work.”
For a fun question, I asked Trott what two characters she’s voiced that would be most interesting to see interact in a sort of crossover situation.
“Most interesting? I think two interesting ones could be Shizuka from Zom 100 [Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead] and Annette from Fire Emblem. It’s not an anime video game, but their personalities are kind of opposite. So I don’t think they’d get along. One that like they might get along would be, I feel like Yoh from Shaman King. If Yoh met Momo, because they both have spirit powers in a way, that would be a rad team up and I feel like they could be friends.
Finally, I asked what fans should look forward to from her in the near future.
“You already know Season 2 of DAN DA DAN has been slated for July and the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle movie is going to be in theaters September 12. In addition to that, I’m going to plug Date Everything. It’s a hilarious dating sim designed by Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond and Max Middleman and it’s featuring a bunch of amazing voice actors and has a hilarious concept. So please check that out.”
We’d like to thank Abby Trott for taking the time to speak to us about her career origins, her many fantastic roles, and the state of the industry. As she mentioned, Season 2 of DAN DA DAN is set to release in July of this year and the Demon Slayer movie will follow just a few months later. Be sure to check out both and hear her incredible performance as well as Date Everything, which features some favorite voice actors from anime and video games alike.
Featured image courtesy of Katz Public Relations
Photographer: Lindsey Ruth Photography @lindsphoto
Hair: Mika Fowler @mikahairstylist
Makeup: Anton Khachaturian @antonmakeup
Stylist: Alex Clough @alexcloughstyle
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