Laura Dawn Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American actress who provides voices for a number of English-language versions of Japanese anime films and television series as well as voice roles in video games and cartoons. Her notable roles include Maka Albarn in Soul Eater, Kid Trunks in Dragon Ball Z, Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket, Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Shinnosuke "Shin" Nohara in Crayon Shin-Chan, the last of which she also served as the line producer. In video games, she provides the voice of Rayne in the BloodRayne series, Chun-Li in the newer titles of the Street Fighter series, The Female Protagonist in Persona 3 Portable, Rise Kujikawa in the Persona 4 series, Blaze the Cat in Sonic the Hedgehog series, Lucina in Fire Emblem Awakening, Serah Farron in the Final Fantasy XIII series, Serana in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard, Spartan Olympia Vale in Halo 5: Guardians, and Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft.

Biography

Bailey was inspired to go into acting after watching a making of Dawson's Creek special where they interviewed Katie Holmes. She attended the theatre program at the Collin County Community College (Quad C) in Plano, Texas. where she participated in productions of "Suburbia", "Through a Glass Onion", and "Don't Rock the Jukebox". Kent Williams, who spotted her at one of the plays, invited her to audition for Funimation, who had been working on Dragon Ball Z. Her most notable role on Dragon Ball Z was Kid Trunks, which she portrayed with a raspy voice. She voiced the starring character Marlene Angel in Blue Gender, which was the first project Funimation did outside of the Dragon Ball world, and Keiko Yukimura in YuYu Hakusho.

Bailey was cast for the starring role of Tohru Honda in the anime Fruits Basket. Bailey said that Tohru's character has helped her be more positive: "I was so inspired by her character by her, joy, and outlook on life that, you know, you wanna emulate that." She later voiced Lust, one of the villains in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Sana Kurata in Kodocha.

Bailey had been working with Funimation for about four years before she started ADR directing. She worked on Blue Gender: The Warrior and some episodes of Case Closed. Her first major ADR Directing project was Gunslinger Girl, in which she also voices Henrietta. She also co-directed parts of Kodocha. She became a line producer for Shin-Chan and also voiced the title character.