Interview: Voice Actor Cassandra Lee Morris

During Anime Central 2026 we had the incredible opportunity to speak with voice actor Cassandra Lee Morris. Morris started as a journalist before moving into voice over, with notable early roles including Alice and Yubel in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. You may recognize her as the English voice of Taiga in Toradora!, Suguha / Leafa in Sword Art Online, Morgana in Persona 5, and Kyubey in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. While our conversation was brief, we got a sense of what went into some of these roles and some perspective on approaching different types of animation writ large.

Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: When recording for Persona 5, did you or other staff on the game anticipate how players would react to Morgana as a character? Especially when forced to get some sleep?

A: When I was cast as Morgana, the production company and the director told me, “Hey, Persona has a cult following, the fanbase is really engaged, and this will probably be something that’s kind of big. There’s already people cosplaying — they’re getting the plaid pants, etc.” And I was like, “Okay.”
But I don’t think anybody could have predicted how amazingly Persona 5 was received. It’s really unlike any other project that I’ve ever been a part of. And I had no idea people were gonna be so mad about me telling them to go to sleep all the time. But it was a fun surprise.

Q: And Morgana isn’t the first mascot-esque character you’ve played either, with Kyubey being another, and perhaps even more controversial. What’s it like approaching characters like that?

A: I approach them just like any other character. To me, every character has a humanity to them, and a truth to them, so whether they’re a human or a creature or a mascot, I just try to do them justice, because they think that they’re real. So, that’s how I treat them, too.

Q: Between voicing characters in video games and in animation, whether it be pre-lay or non-pre-lay, do you have a preference, and has experience in one area influenced experiences in the other?

A: I have no preference. I just love acting, so anytime anybody wants me to play a character, I’m down. The technical aspects of animation in video games are very, very, very different. In video games, you’re recording your lines solo with no scene partner, and you’re often jumping around in scenes rapidly. So, to be able to access a lot of different emotions very quickly is super important. And to keep my energy up for a video game session, which is usually four hours long, it takes a lot of stamina. Animation is a little bit different, because usually we record animation in a group setting, and we do it scene by scene, so it’s nice to have the other actors to play off of. And for anime, anime sessions are a little bit slower, because they are dubbing, obviously, so matching the lip flaps is super important. Dubbing is very challenging as an actor, because it is so technical. There’s not a lot of room for improv or error, because you’re always thinking about the timing. So, to be able to deliver a good performance while also staying within the timing is something that I work really hard at, and I always try to give it my all. And, yeah, I have no preference among the three. It’s just shifting my brain to work on the different things technically.

We’d like to thank Cassandra Lee Morris and the staff of Anime Central for the interview. You can check out the many shows Morris has been a part of on a bevy of anime streaming services. Be on the lookout for registration information for Anime Central 2027 so you can see these amazing voice actors yourself.