If you’ve been a fan of animation any time between 1990 and today, you’ve been touched by the work of Andrea Romano, the legendary voice director who’s been working with voice actors on over 110 shows and movies. It was announced on Monday that Romano will retire from the industry at the end of this week, after a career that has garnered 35 Emmy nominations and 8 wins, started with 62 episodes of DuckTales, and has most recently led to Netflix’s excellent Voltron: Legendary Defender.
Romano began working with Warner Bros animation in the early ’90s, and became the voice director during the studio’s renaissance. Her Emmy wins list reads like a catalog of everything I loved about my childhood: Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Pinky and the Brain, and Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain. In total she directed over 1,600 episodes of television, 50 movies (23 of which were DC Universe Animated films), and 20 video games. With a wide-ranging catalog of critically acclaimed titles like Spongebob Squarepants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Justice League, ReBoot, Tiny Toon Adventures under her belt, it’s safe to say that Romano has done everything, and was a huge part of why those shows are what they are.
“I shall miss so many aspects of this industry – particularly the people I’ve worked alongside, and all the fun that happens on both side of the glass,” said Romano in a statement. “From the bottom of my heart, I extend my sincere gratitude to every actor, producer, director, engineer and colleague that has helped make this run so incredible.”
Ms. Romano was even a guest on an episode of the Nerdist Podcast in which she recounted incredible stories about working in the industry and on so many of the best cartoons ever made. Though she is stepping down from voice directing, she does plan to remain in the industry in some way, so let’s hope there’s even more shows will benefit from her extreme, unrivaled talent.
Images: Warner Bros
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He’s written the animation retrospectives Batman: Reanimated, X-Men: Reanimated, Cowboy Rebop, and Samurai reJacked. Follow him on Twitter!
