Vanessa Marshall

This article is written from the Real Life point of view

“	Psyched to check this out! Been a long time since we recorded it! #Samus xo	„
—Vanessa Marshall

Vanessa Marshall
Born	October 19, 1969 (age 55)
Place of Birth	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Princeton University (BA) New York University (MFA)
Occupation	Voice actress
Spouse	Andrew Kishino (2001-2007)
Parents	Joan Van Ark (mother) John Marshall (father)
Nationality	American
Website	http://vanessamarshall.com/

Vanessa Marshall is an American voice actress with extensive work in video games and animated films and television, particularly as Black Canary in various DC media. She provided the death scream of Samus Aran in the Metroid Prime series.

VM

Vanessa Marshall's role as Samus was first revealed in a 2018 interview with Clark Wen, the audio lead of Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, on Shinesparkers. Asked about the voice of Samus, Wen recalled that a dozen actresses had auditioned for the role through Nintendo EAD, who sent him the recordings. He did not know their names, only having their initials. While he used the recordings of an actress with the initials "JH" (Jennifer Hale) for Samus's general grunts of pain when hurt, he used a scream for Samus's death from an actress with the initials "VM". This is because he wanted an actress with a higher register for it. He did not have any idea who "VM" might be, and suspected that "internet sleuths" would discover her identity.

“	However, to add to the mystery, I used a different actress for the death scream as I wanted a voice with a higher register for the game over screen. An actress with the initials of “VM”. Maybe the internet sleuths can figure this one out. Unfortunately, the exact identities of the actresses in question are in an e-mail somewhere buried deep in Nintendo’s archives. 🙁	„
—Clark Wen

Some fans suggested that "VM" may refer to Vanessa Marshall. Wen called this assertion a reasonable guess. Although Marshall never commented directly on this revelation, in 2023 she tweeted the Metroid Prime Remastered - Launch Trailer with a comment confirming that she had recorded for the game. She also tweeted the Shinesparkers interview with Wen, signed "VM", confirming her identity.

Dark Samus's voice clips are derived from unused recordings of Samus's grunts and screams of pain, although Wen did not specify whether these unused clips were recorded by "VM", "JH", or another actress.

External links

• Website
• Marshall on Twitter