Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Tom Fahn FanimeCon 2025 Interview – Professional Voice Over Power Couple Talks Digimon, Trigun, and More

Proving that “the couple that voice acts together, stays together!,” voice acting icons Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Tom Fahn have made a tremendous impact through hundreds of iconic roles in anime, video games, and series old and new.

As veterans of the Digi-World and regular viewers of Toonami, Gamers Heroes recently spoke with professional voice over artists Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Tom Fahn about Digimon, Trigun, Danganronpa, and so much more – learn more with our interview.

Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Tom Fahn FanimeCon 2025 Interview – Professional Voice Over Power Couple Talks Digimon, Trigun, and More

Gamers Heroes

We are live! Such an honor to interview you both – twice as nice!

Starting out, I got a fun story that ties into everything.

We’ve been in the gaming space for a while, going to E3, EGX, all that type of stuff. 

And our Editor-in-Chief, who is based out of the London area, was there for the PlayStation 4 launch with Sony – got him on camera, whole nine yards.

So they asked him: “What’s your favorite Sony game? Is it Crash Bandicoot, The Last of Us?”

He said: “Digimon World for the PlayStation One!”

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

Yeah!

Gamers Heroes 

Exactly! And he’s still a diehard fan to this day. Huge Digimon fan.

Tom Fahn

You’re saying the right things, Casey!

Gamers Heroes

I’ve been in this space for a little while! [laughs]

It’s from the heart, too.

But on that note, Agumon is iconic – all over everything! How has your voice “Digivolved” over the years?

Tom Fahn

Can I stop you right here for one second – did you introduce who we are, or should I say who we are? Because you’re listening to Tom Fahn and Dorothy Fahn – and Casey. 

Gamers Heroes

Casey – no last name. I’m just that special! [laughs]

But yes, again, huge fan!

The series has been around for a while – love to know exactly how things have “Digivolved” – especially since you have both played a major part of that!

Tom Fahn

We started doing what was called Japanimation back in the day, anime in the early 90s. And we worked on Macross, Orguss – a lot of early stuff – and we found our way to Saban working on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. 

We both did voices on miscellaneous characters on Power Rangers!

And then if you worked on that, you were asked to audition for Saban’s newest show: Digimon. 

This was about 1999, and I was lucky enough to play Agumon – and I’m still playing Agumon in certain variations, and I’ve I played Digmon every now and the drill of knowledge or the drill of power – never quite sure. 

I had one fan at a convention come up to me and tell me every single miscellaneous character that I did – and I didn’t even remember them!

And Dorothy, what did you play on Digimon?

Dorothy Elias-Fash

I played Lillymon and Rosemon and Tai’s mom!

And then, going through the years, I played Sunflowmon and Lalamon and Lilamon – and just so many Mons!

Then on Digimon Tamers, we were asked to play Babaman and Gigimon, which was an old couple fighting. 

They’re in one scene, one episode, and they wanted us to do it like Billy Crystal and Carol Kane in The Princess Bride. 

So we were like, “Casey, what the heck are you talking about? I love you so much!”

Like fighting!

Then we did the Digimon Tri movies and various Digimon video games, and still added in the world things we can’t even things we can’t even talk about. 

Gamers Heroes

Absolutely – I totally get it. That was so many different Digimon!

How do you channel the voice for each one? Do you practice in the shower? Do you do banter when you’re cooking with each other? 

Tom Fahn

You know, if we’ve forgotten it – like when I went back to do Digimon Tri – they were like like “we’re gonna play you some of me from like before.”

You know, you hear one line and you got it – they play it in your headphones!

But they keep recordings – thet call them refs – of all your characters. So if you happen to forget when you go in for a session, they’ll play it for you.

And then you’re like:

“Oh yeah, I know that!”

I know that usually, at every anime voiceover session, if it’s a brand-new thing you’ve been cast, they know you can do it. 

But then they show you the animation and that starts to form what kind of voice to use. They’ll then play you the Japanese audio, and they’ll say one of two things.

We want you to sound just like this person in Japanese in English, or we want you to sound nothing like this person. 

We’re just showing it to you, but don’t sound so if it’s a guttural like they’re like, “We don’t want that!”

And that’s the story of Agumon!

In Japanese, the gal who’s still doing it, she’s almost guttural.

But, you know, I didn’t do that, Casey – I did something else! 

Gamers Heroes

So on that same note, we’re talking about all these different forms of media and anime – things like that. 

What have you noticed when it comes to the world of gaming? I’ve asked some other VAs this question too, because I know that takes a different approach.

Are there any standout stories?

Tom Fahn

It’s still recorded the same way, but it’s so evolved now – basically it’s now on Pro Tools.

Recording a video game is different than recording anime. 

In a video game, you’re not doing it to any picture, and usually they’ll ask the actor to do three takes of the same line. 

So if the line is:

“Hey, Casey, what’s going on?”

You’ll do it three times:

“Hey, Casey, what’s going on?” “Hey, Casey, what’s going on?” 

So three times, and then they’ll go, “Okay, great! We’re moving on.” 

You know, sometimes you’ll have two hundred, three hundred, four hundred lines – and they’ll want three of each.

Dorothy-Elias Fahn

Or two!

Tom Fahn

Especially sometimes two, yeah. 

Video games are four-hour sessions, so it’s very long. 

So sometimes they say, “Give us two.” 

And if we don’t have it, then we’ll have you do another one. 

However, it’s recorded basically the same way.

Gamers Heroes

Are there any lines that may have missed production, or something like that you’re especially proud of? I’m sure it’s one of those things where you have to really go back!

I don’t know if there’s anything like Star Wars, like, “I love you. I know.”

Dorothy-Elias Fahn

No, I don’t remember, but I will say this…

In Digimon, when your character Digivolves to the next level, somebody else takes over that role, right? 

But when I was doing Lilymon and I evolved to Rosemon, I got to do both! 

Tom Fahn

And how would that sound Dorothy?

Dorothy Elias-Fash

Well, it might sound something like this:

“Lillymon, Digivolve to Rosemon!”

[Absolutely nailed it! Just imagine it at home – or watch below]

Tom Fahn

And sometimes I played Agumon, which evolved to Greymon.

Gamers Heroes

On that same note, I’m a huge Danganronpa fan. 

Talking about video games, I know Dorothy plays three roles in the games – and I’ve been looking around for a Junko all day!

These Ultimate students, they have such different personalities from each other. You’ve got programmers, you’ve got cosplay, you’ve got pop. 

That’s three wildly different approaches – how have you approached each one? Do you have a favorite?

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

Sayaka was very sweet.

[spoilers]

She, you know, lasted the least amount of time.

I love Chihiro because Chihiro was a character who has a secret – a very big secret.

That was a challenge to play – first of all to find the voice, and then to play it. I think I loved Chihiro the best because of that. 

But for Tsugumi from V3, I will say this. 

I can’t give away spoilers. I know about to say spoilers, but they did not tell me going in where she would end up! 

So I’m going along for our sessions. Great four-hour session, blah, blah. 

We’re in the last session and I’m like,

“Whaaaat?” [laughs]

Tom Fahn

Can you give them an example on what they would sound like?

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

Chihiro was kind of a little bit shy sounding. Sayaka, I think she was just kind of fun. And Tsugumi was very close to Sayaka.

Gamers Heroes

Still got it – absolutely!

So one of the first anime I ever saw was Trigun on Toonami – changed my world! Basically got into the industry through that, and a huge part of Trigun is Meryl.

Changing gears a little bit – Gen Z kids are going gaga over Trigun: Stampede. I’m actually part of a Bay Area anime group called Bay Area Anime and Gaming, and they love Stampede and are discovering the original for the first time.

I’d like to know what it was like channeling her energy, but also what’s it like interacting with these fans from all walks of life? 

Tom Fahn

You know, we passed a Wolfwood on the way over!

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

It’s super fun, because they’re introduction to Trigun is sometimes Stampede! From there, they do rediscover things, and they’re like:

“Oh my god, this is totally great – we love this. We love your version of it!”

And you know, we love the new one too!

For my part doing Meryl, she’s my favorite character. I loved her because she was so gung-ho about what her job was and what she was doing.

But then she was, like, completely whacked out, sometimes crazy!

And, as you know, over the course of the series, her relationship with Vash changes. 

It was just a lot – her character had a lot going on, and I really loved that!

Tom Fahn

Casey, can I tell you a Trigun story? 

Dorothy was lucky to have a Funko Pop come out – two!

Gamers Heroes 

Two Meryl Funko Pops – impressive!

Tom Fahn

So our daughter, who’s 22, said “Let’s watch Trigun! I want to hear mom – I want to hear Dorothy.”

So we watched two Trigun episodes a night on Hulu.

Never watched it – we don’t usually watch anime; we work in the anime! 

So we’re watching Trigun, and Dorothy is doing great. Jeff Nimoy, Johnny Yong Bosch, Leah Sargent – they’re all great. 

And every now and then, our daughter goes: 

“Daddy, that was you! You just got shot, daddy, that was you! You were the bartender.”

I forgot I had played a bunch of miscellaneous characters!

Gamers Heroes

Oh, absolutely. I always love finding the cat in every episode!

Talking a bit more about that – we’re at Fanime, and Fanime’s slogan is “by fans, for fans.”

I always love these conventions – gone to big ones, small ones, and everything in-between. 

We’re at day two of Fanime – what’s it been like interacting with your fans? I saw you’ve been on tour too – I stalked your Instagram too!

It looks like people are having a lot of fun with cosplay, and you mentioned a couple of the gifts. Are there any standout fan stories?

Tom Fahn

We don’t want to oversaturate us, but if it’s once a month, it’s really fun!

The way this one is run, this is the most organized of any convention – it’s fantastic!

There were so many people here at the opening ceremonies – this one was great. 

I think it was genius that they opened the convention yesterday at two o’clock, but they had the opening ceremonies at one o’clock – huge audience! 

But meeting the fans is the best part of the whole thing! Let’s be honest: we wouldn’t be here without any fans. 

If you would tell me in 1999 that I’m going in the booth to record Agumon, and we’re going to be talking about it 25 years later, and and I just signed a Funko Pop that that’s been vaulted – that they don’t even make it anymore?!

The fans are great, and the fans know everything.

Someone came up to me – proud of it – and said:

“Dude, how come you don’t have a Crablante out here from One Punch Man?”

I’m like, “What is that?”

They go, “Dude, you’re Crablante – you did the voice!”

And then he got online, he got offline, he came back – and he showed me on YouTube. 

He goes, “This is you, right?” 

We played it, and yeah, that’s you! We’ve done a bunch, and we just forget some things sometimes – thank God for IMDb!

Gamers Heroes

That’s also why I’m keeping this short, because I could be here all day! I’ve watched – a lot – of anime.

On that note, are there any dream projects they’ve always wanted to take on? I know things are sometimes under wraps with NDAs or embargoes…

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

I can’t talk about stuff that I’ve done recently, except for Blue Box that recently came out. 

However, a dream project would be anything in Star Wars, or anything in Star Trek!

My entire life I have wanted to do something in any of those franchises, and I’ve only in all these years had one audition for a computer voice on Star Trek Picard.

I thought I did a really good job as the computer voice!

Tom Fahn

I don’t begrudge any actor getting any work – I really don’t. It’s a hard business.

If you’re auditioning in Los Angeles, you’re going up against so many, I don’t know, 1,000, 

We have little booths at home. She has a beautiful voice-over booth in the front closet, and I have a little booth in the back where I do my auditions. 

Put the blanket over your head, read the copy in the script, audition, and submit it to your agent.

I can’t control getting the job, because they’re probably reading so far. 

However, I can control what kind of audition I do. If I leave and do a great audition, I’m happy!

Gamers Heroes

The fans certainly remember, look at that!

Wrapping things up, but with decades of experience, I have to ask: 

How would you encourage others to enter the VA space and follow in your footsteps?

Tom Fahn

When we started, they didn’t have Pro Tools.

Dubbing is a little bit of an art form, and you had to be perfecting to get it, to let it sink in.

Sometimes the dub was better than the original anime in terms of syncing the mouth and the like. 

Do it like anything in life, then you got to do it! You got to go for it – you got to put the work in!

Voice acting is acting, so take an acting class, take an improv class, and then take a voiceover class.

If you get a good voice over class – and they have so many of them online now – Joshua Seth and Steve Blum and so many great people teach a voiceover class.

Dee Bradley Baker has a website called iwanttobeavoiceactor.com, and there’s a tremendous amount of information. 

Everything you want to know, if you want to do it, then do it. 

Don’t think it’s going to be easy, but it’s not impossible.

Tom Fahn

I had this guy that I worked with on an independent video game in the UK, and he said that he’s a director.

He said that he would like to also do voiceover, but he says he has a terrible voice. 

And I said to him, “You know what? No one has a terrible voice. There is room in voiceover for every single type of voice.” 

If you want to pursue that, pursue it! There are so many different people in the world – if you want to do it, you got to do it, but there’s no easy way. 

Gamers Heroes

I have tremendous respect for VAs – and you two are legends.

It’s a huge honor, and I appreciate your time! You’ve made a huge impact, and you got a lot of fans.

Tom Fahn

We’re really happy to be here – and Casey, we think you’re a legend as well!

One can follow Dorothy Elias-Fahn via her official Instagram, Twitter/X, and Bluesky social media channels.

One can also request a greeting from her via Cameo!

The post Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Tom Fahn FanimeCon 2025 Interview – Professional Voice Over Power Couple Talks Digimon, Trigun, and More appeared first on GamersHeroes.