Jen Taylor

Jennifer Lee Taylor (born February 17, 1973) is an American actress and voice actress best known for her roles as Cortana in various Halo games as well as the intelligent personal assistant of the same name. She also voices Zoey in Left 4 Dead; Princess Peach, Toad, and Toadette in various Mario games between 1999 and 2008;[2] Salem in RWBY, and Lina, Windranger, Puck and Medusa in Dota 2.

Jen Taylor
Taylor in 2007
Born	Jennifer Lee Taylor February 17, 1973[1] Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, voice actress
Years active	1993–present

Career

Born in Burien, Washington and raised in Sammamish, Washington, Taylor taught herself how to do voice work by recording the radio and imitating what she heard.[3] She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in theater.[4] Before starting in voice work, she worked as a radio DJ for KNDD.[5]

Taylor has voiced characters in multiple video games. She voiced Princess Peach, Toad, and Toadette in Mario games between 1999 and 2006.[2] She has voiced the character Cortana in Halo games since the first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved (2001).[6] She also voices the virtual assistant Cortana, which was named after the character and first released in 2014.[7]

She has played Salem, the main antagonist in the animated web series RWBY, since 2013.[8] Taylor has also acted on radio, in an episode of the radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes[9] that aired in 2014.[10]

Taylor has narrated nearly thirty audiobooks, and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards.[11] Her narration of Tami Hoag's Mismatch was nominated for an Audie Award in 2009.[12]

As a stage actress, Taylor has played various roles such as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice[13] and Eliza Doolittle in a Seattle Shakespeare Company production of Pygmalion.[14]

Filmography

Live action

List of acting performances in television and film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1993	Mad Dog and Glory	Pam Delmer	Uncredited
1993	This Boy's Life	Deputy Commissioner O'Riley	Uncredited
1998	The Truman Show	Contralto	Uncredited
1998	Blade	Baby	Uncredited
1999	The Big Kahuna	Mrs. Johnson	Uncredited
2000	The Brainiacs.com	Woman at Accident	Uncredited
2001	Don's Plum	Foxie	Uncredited
2001	I Am Sam	Woman Chauffeur	Uncredited
2004	Inheritance	Abbey		[15]
2010	Leverage	Jodie McManus	Ep. "The Future Job" (season 2, episode 13)	[16]
2018	Everything Sucks!	Miss Stock	2 episodes	[17]
2021	Halo	Cortana (voice)		[18]

Animation

List of voice performances in animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2013–present	RWBY	Mysterious Narrator / Salem		[8][19]

Video games

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1997	Backyard Baseball	Sunny Day / Billy Jean Blackwood / Luanne Lui / Maria Luna		[17]
1998	Thinkin' Things: Sky Island Mysteries	Glove		[17]
1999–2008	Mario franchise	Princess Peach, Toad, Birdo, Princess Daisy, Toadette		[2]
2001	Aliens versus Predator 2	Tomiko / Various		[20]
2001	Halo: Combat Evolved	Cortana		[21]
2001	Super Smash Bros. Melee	Princess Peach
2001	Luigi's Mansion	Toad
2002	No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way	Cate Archer / Isako / Ninja Girls		[17]
2004	Halo 2	Cortana		[21]
2006	SiN Episodes	Jessica Cannon
2007	Halo 3	Cortana		[21]
2008	Left 4 Dead	Zoey		[21]
2009	F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin	Lt. Keira Stokes		[21]
2009	1 vs. 100 Live	herself
2010	Left 4 Dead 2	Zoey	DLC only	[21]
2010	Halo: Reach	Halsey, Cortana (Firefight)		[21]
2012	Guild Wars 2	Demmi Beetlestone		[22]
2012	Halo 4	Cortana (voice), Halsey	Also motion-capture performance for Halsey	[21]
2013	Dota 2	Lina, Puck, Windranger, Medusa		[23]
2014	Destiny	City Civil Frame, Archive Security A.I., City P.A.		[24]
2015	Infinite Crisis	Atomic Wonder Woman		[25][26]
2015	Halo 5: Guardians	Cortana, Dr. Halsey	Also motion-capture performance for Dr. Halsey	[27]
2018	Forza Horizon 4	Cortana		[28]

Other works

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2014–present	Windows Phone 8.1	Cortana		[29][7]
2015–present	Windows 10	Cortana		[30]

References

1. Taylor, Jen [@jentaylorfortown] (February 17, 2017). "Thank you for my happy birthday wishes, friends! It has been relaxing and full of cheese which explains this photo" (Tweet). Retrieved March 22, 2017 – via Twitter.
2. "Jen Taylor - South Texas Gamers Expo". South Texas Gamers Expo. August 19, 2016. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
3. Kindel, Ryan (October 2015). "The Voice Behind Cortana, Halo's Dr. Halsey". Seattle Magazine. Tiger Oak Media. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
4. "Jennifer Taylor". Macmillan Publishers. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
5. Brodeur, Nicole (December 12, 2014). "The voice of Halo's Cortana is a Jane Austen type at heart". The Seattle Times. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
6. Benedetti, Winda (October 29, 2012). "The heart of Halo: Actress talks a decade spent playing Cortana". NBC News. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
7. Blair, Nancy (April 3, 2014). "Who is Cortana? It's Halo's Jen Taylor". USA Today.
8. RWBY. Season 1. Event occurs at Closing credits.
9. "Video Games and Audio Dramas Meet at Imagination Theater". Imagination Theatre. January 23, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
10. Wright, Stewart (April 30, 2019). "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Broadcast Log" (PDF). Old-Time Radio. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
11. "Jen Taylor". Cedar House Audio Productions. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
12. "2009 Audie Awards". Audio Publishers Association. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
13. "Jennifer Lee Taylor". AboutTheArtists. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
14. "Seattle Actor Profile – Jennifer Lee Taylor". Seattle Shakespeare Company. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
15. "Inheritance - Press: Interview with Jen Taylor". June 13, 2003. Archived from the original on June 13, 2003. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
16. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1497969/
17. "Hyper Chat: Jen Taylor". Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
18. "Halo TV Series Recasts Cortana With Original Voice Actress".
19. RWBY. Season 3. Episode 12. Event occurs at Closing credits.
20. Monolith Productions (October 22, 2001). Aliens Versus Predator 2 (Windows). Sierra Entertainment. Scene: Credits.
21. "Jen Taylor". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 14, 2017. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.
22. Jen Taylor - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)
23. Voice actors - Dota 2 Wiki
24. Destiny – End Credits – IGN Video. IGN Video. September 11, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
25. Turbine, Inc. Infinite Crisis. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Scene: Credits, Voice Over Talent.
26. "Infinite Crisis Credits". Archived from the original on October 11, 2014.
27. 343 Industries. Halo 5: Guardians. Microsoft Studios. Scene: Closing credits, 7 minutes in, Main Voice and Performance Cast.
28. Skrebels, Joe (August 21, 2018). "Forza Horizon 4's Halo In-Game Event Is Real, Amazing - Gamescom 2018". IGN. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
29. tomwarren. "The story of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri killer". The Verge. Vox Media.
30. Judith Aparri. "Microsoft Corporation Lets Cortana Open Apps in Windows 10". Guardian Liberty Voice.

• Bungie's 2002 interview with Jen Taylor

External links

• Jen Taylor on Twitter
• Jen Taylor at IMDb