Welcome.
Thanks for dropping by and feel free to say hi!
Storytelling has been a part of my life before I could even read.
Although my parents are both Taiwanese, that beautiful little island off the coast of China was occupied by the Japanese from the late 1800s to 1945. My dad’s side of the family was heavily influenced by Japanese rule and that was why he spoke the language and worked there for almost thirty years. Growing up, my parents always attributed some type of Japanese culture into my upbringing. At bedtime, my dad would tell us stories like The Peony Lantern (Botan Dōrō), Snow Maiden (Yuki-Onna), The Peach Boy (Momotaro) and of course, no story time would be complete without the best Chinese mythology to date: The Monkey King (Sun Wukong).
Honestly, I give my dad all the credit for how much I love reading and telling stories. Tucked under the blankets, and still very much afraid of the dark, he’d do all the voices (an old farmer with arthritis, the ghost wandering the streets looking for her lost love, little Momotaro, the brash and cocky Sun Wukong) AND he’d also do the sound effects (the rain hitting the windowpane at night, the creaking door of an abandoned shed, the wind howling through barren tree branches, the terrifying wail of a ghost begging to be let inside).
When I finally could read, my sister and I used to spend hours at the library reading through everything before they closed. Even though she preferred to read on her own, I would always ask her (maybe more like beg) for me to read to her.
“I’ll do funny voices!”
“I’ll add sound effects!”
“Just sit back and relax! It’ll be like a movie!”
We used to get into such big fights about it.
She probably thought I was questioning her intelligence. Or maybe she just hated the way I interpreted her favorite MMCs.
SIGH…you just can’t please everybody in this industry...
But the few times she did allow me to go into full narrator mode and impersonate dwarves, ancient gods or unexpected nobodies turned heroes, it made me feel as though I had just been given the keys to a boba tea shop (yes, not candy - that’s a bit overrated). I didn’t think audiobook narration was an actual job. I thought the closest thing to that was being a news anchor haha.
My love for narrating and reading led me to study English Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I wrote my thesis on Wuthering Heights.
More specifically…the Yorkshire soil.
Yeah, you read that right.
The soil.
I’m so weird.
Fast forward many years later, I am fortunate and blessed to be based in the Chicagoland area as a VO artist and on-camera talent.
When I’m not recording, auditioning or filming, you’ll find me running while listening to some true crime podcast, audiobook (of course) or GraphicAudio adaptation.
I have two cats, Luna & Latte. Luna hates being picked up so you’ll only see me with Latte in the booth:
LOL, girl. That can’t be comfortable…
Sick of me yet? More “fun” facts:
Born and raised in Chicago
My parents immigrated from Taiwan in the late 1990’s
Grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and English. Had Japanese in the house all the time cause my dad was always speaking it, watching Japanese movies or singing competitions haha
Took French for 10 years
Attended a Korean church for almost a decade. I have a lot of Korean phrases, songs and food stuck in my head all the time.
Had a brief stint as a radio DJ and copywriter for on-air commercials
I wanted to be an author for the longest time, then I decided I wanted to be an English professor focusing on literary theory, and then I became a telemarketer, and then I really had a moment where I thought I wanted to be a vocational minister or work for a Bible college, and then I went into sales for more than twelve years where I climbed the corporate ladder and was a saleswoman, then manager, then director and then the Head of Revenue for a software start up
On a more sensitive and personal note, I do live with chronic pain and have a history of depression and anxiety. Yay for medication and therapy!!